Exclusive Interview with "Star Wars: Bounty Hunter" Writer/Director Jon Knoles

We spoke with the head honcho of the “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter,” Jon Knoles, to revisit his fan-favorite video game from 2002, which has an “enhanced edition” out today — he wasn’t involved but shared his thoughts.

How was it to design, write, and direct the fan-favorite “Star Wars: Bounty Hunter” game? With all the pieces involved, that’s not an easy feat!

In a word, stressful. It was too many hats to wear. But I had a lot of creative freedom, so coming up with the story was fun, once I started writing. Then came fundamental game design challenges like the nuts and bolts of a third person platform shooter, making a character that was fun to play. And the headaches a jet pack created for our level designers, designing “too big” of a game for a relatively small team and two year development cycle. Lots of new worlds to build, brand new game engine, new team. And at the time I didn’t really want to make another Star Wars game, I’d worked on nothing but Star Wars for a decade at that point and wanted to do something original (code-named “Sawyer” which we canceled to make “Bounty Hunter”). But when they let me make it all about Fett, I was all in.

The game came out the same year as “Attack of the Clones,” which is unusually fast. In one interview, you said the plan originated in November 2000 and there was a proposal on the table March 2001, but how was it to work on it while the film wasn’t out yet?

It was a tight schedule for such a big game. Luckily, since the game took place ten years earlier, the events of the film had little impact on what we were doing, and the only film location we would emulate was Coruscant, which had a ton of concept work already that we could use as reference. Some things came as a surprise pretty late, like Zam Wessel turning out to be a shapeshifter. We were pretty much done with the game when that was revealed in an early screening. The sound of Jango’s blasters in the film also changed too late for us to use. That sound also didn’t really work well in the game – it doesn’t lend itself well to rapid fire button mashing.

The game also uniquely answered questions about Jango not seen in the movie. How was it to author backstory and depth to the newest Fett? Anything you’re especially proud about creating story wise?

I’m probably most proud of the story, and “saving” some of the Fett and Mandalorian lore. I began with a simple premise based on a line in Attack of the Clones where Jango tells Obi-Wan that he was “recruited by a man called Tyranus on one of the moons of Bogden.” Ok, that story hadn’t been told yet. It would be a prequel to a prequel by ten years. But I had some questions that would need special permission.

Can I explain how Dooku/Tyranus chose Jango to become the template for the clone army? Why he wanted the first clone for himself, unmodified? Could I explain how he acquired his ship? Can I make a movie villain/henchman the hero of his own story? Could I make it about a bounty hunt for a deranged dark Jedi who was a former pupil of Dooku? The head of Lucasfilm Licensing at the time, Howard Roffman, suggested I send these questions to George Lucas. The more “yes or no” in format, the better. I sent around ten questions in an inter-office envelope with the initials “GWL” in the TO: box. Not many Lucasfilm or LucasArts employees got to do that.

George Lucas sent answers in his trademark red ball point pen, YES to almost all of them. The only one he didn’t say YES to was an early idea I had for Jango’s motive, revenge against a deranged Jedi who had killed his Mandalorian comrades long ago. He wrote something like, “He’s a mercenary. Keep it about the money.” He even wrote in the margins about the anti-hero aspect, and why he wanted a son. Jango isn’t good or evil. He has his own moral code. Like anyone else he wants to leave a legacy, raise a kid, but it’s a dangerous life. I also asked if I could transpose some of the lore that had been created for Boba Fett over the years to Jango Fett’s own backstory. Yes. Can I name Jango’s nemesis Montross, a name first used in the original “Adventures of Luke Starkiller” script? Answer: Yes.

Then I collaborated with another in-house resident expert on Star Wars lore, Haden Blackman, on piecing that new history together, drawing heavily from Daniel Keys Moran’s short story “The Last One Standing: The Tale of Boba Fett.” In that story we learn Boba Fett was originally named Jaster Mereel, a Journeyman Protector from the planet Concord Dawn in the Mandalore system. I wanted young Jango to be saved and “adopted” by Jaster Mereel as a child, raised in the “Mandalorian Way.” I wanted him to have two opposing father figures like the character Chris in the Oliver Stone movie, “Platoon.” Jaster Mereel is like Willem Dafoe’s character, Sgt. Elias, while Montross was like the more ruthless Sgt. Barnes played by Tom Berenger. Montross would betray Jaster and become Jango’s lifelong nemesis. Haden crafted all of this into his “Jango Fett: Open Seasons” story for Dark Horse comics, which you can unlock in the game.

You’ve described Jango as a blue-collar galactic badass and how George Lucas shared that Jango would be motivated by money, not revenge. How did that help shape the project?

“Keep it about the money” was the best advice George Lucas gave me. It made the story much clearer. Instead of a convoluted revenge story with a ton of boring backstory exposition, I had a simple premise: Dooku hires the most fearsome bounty hunters in the galaxy to hunt his former pupil and put an end to the problems she’s causing for his master, Darth Sidious. The winner would be the ideal template for the clone army. That inspired me to make their prey someone even fearless bounty hunters like Jango and Montross might have trouble with.

Jango’s got his dual blasters, wrist gauntlet, whipcord, laser, grenades, jetpack, flamethrower… What’s your favorite Jango accessory?

The jetpack, for sure. It changed everything once we dialed it in. And the way in which he would auto-aim both blasters on both a primary and secondary target was pretty slick.

Rozatta as a business partner is a nice addition. How did her character come about?

I needed someone to provide doubt or fear for Jango and make it clear this is no ordinary bounty hunt, but Jango’s a tough mercenary, and – crucially – he doesn’t talk much, so I couldn’t have him blabbering on about how dangerous this is, how he should settle down and have a kid, etc. I needed someone to do that for him. Enter Rozatta. She’s that voice of doubt and fear, the reminder that Jango needs to live for something other than money, otherwise what’s it all for? She’s also an underworld profiteer, not entirely trustworthy, which made me think of Watto, so we made her the same species. But you sense she truly cares about Jango. And to have the legendary Lucille Bliss voice her character was was perfect.

The game featured the first collab of LucasArts and ILM, plus Skywalker Sound was involved. How did that help the in-game cinematics?

Technically, The Dig was the first collaboration. But this was the biggest. Working with ILM was terrific. We got lucky. Their commercial team was without a project, and we had more cinematic work than we could possibly do alone. They were excited because it was the first and perhaps only project ever done at ILM that was entirely animated – no live action. They made my job as director pretty easy. I would just nod and say, “awesome” most of the time. Same with Skywalker sound. Just fantastic, next level stuff.

The unlockable outtakes are especially great touch – bloopers and gags in the voice-over by Temuera Morrison but rendered out as if Jango. How did that come about?

Temuera Morrison and Clancy Brown aren’t just amazing actors, they’re both incredibly funny in person. Cracking jokes, offering up anecdotes, flubbing lines, making fun of lines: “Why, in EVERY GAME, do you we have to say that line?!” (“This is gonna hurt you a lot more than me”). So our voice editors sent us some fun bloopers, and when the animators had some down time, they’d put those to animation. The only intentionally scripted one was “What’s my Motivation?” which was having fun with an old joke a lot of Star Wars actors would share.

From some of the game’s concept art, it almost looked like additional story content was being considered for the game. For example, Jango Fett in a space suit over his Mandalorian armor, Montross on Kamino, and a rendering of a Clone Trooper – as if it were a character in the game. Anything you could share about those visuals and other things on the cutting room floor?

There was a level we cut where Jango was trying to find the location of Vosa’s burial moon by searching a ghost ship in orbit that was used to transport the dead, wearing a zero G suit with magnetic boots and such. Rozatta’s Outland Station base was meant to be a game hub in a more open game structure – you’d return often, visit Rozatta for new leads, visit Dexter Jettster for weapons (an old friend of Obi-Wan who we meet running a diner in Attack of the Clonesand learn he used to be an arms dealer). There were also going to be several other competitors you’d need to defeat as bosses, which became multiple run-ins with Montross. At one point early on, Montross wasn’t a bounty hunter, but Vosa’s henchman, and he was leading a raid on Kamino. The hardest cut for me was a final “denouement” cinematic where ten years later, Jango and young Boba look over the clone army on Kamino from their apartment window and share a father-son bonding moment.

One ad for the game featured a live-action Jango pursuing a bounty hiding in a pond. Were you involved with that spot and what did you think of it?

I didn’t have a part in that, other than the marketing taglines used like “There’s no place to hide!”, a lot of which I came up with. I thought it was a pretty clever ad, but wished they’d used Tem’s voice.

There’s an update to the game coming out next month on August 1st. While you weren’t involved with the 2024 enhanced edition, what would you have fixed?

I didn’t have any part in the upcoming enhanced edition. If they’d asked, I would have offered some advice:

1. Automatically activate the bounty scanner when using manual aim, don’t make player unequip a weapon to use it. That sucked. Also make scanning almost instant.
2. Remove some redundant follow cam return spring code that made for an awful camera (we fixed that for the Japanese PS2 version game called “Jango Fett” but was too late for others. Gamecube was a little better). Or go full standard FPS control – left stick move, right stick always aim/look, no follow cam spring.
3. Revamp the save system to support unlimited continues (think we had only 5 per level).
4. Always soften landings with jet pack even when out of energy, and let player hover slow over chasms if out of boost juice. A Mando wouldn’t fall to his death. Death falls suck.

The enhanced edition also claims there was an easter egg in the original – some Aurebesh text somewhere saying “Cash in all bounties to play as Boba.” Any recollection of that?

I don’t know anything about that. I do think we wanted an unlockable Boba character, but never did it, and don’t recall that being tied to cashing in all optional bounties, that was tied to other unlockable content.

You’ve worked on a ton of other Star Wars video games: “Super Star Wars,” “Shadows of the Empire,” “Episode I – Racer,” “X-Wing,” and more. Any favorites?

The “Super Star Wars” trilogy was great fun to work on. I also loved working on X-Wing and TIE Fighter and their expansions. I’m also proud of the legacy “Shadows of the Empire” spawned, specifically the “Rogue Squadron” series and “Episode I Racer,” which was the last time I created art and built levels for a game. Way too many hats to wear, but that game came out great because of its singular focus, eye-peeling speed.

How was it working at LucasArts? Do you think Disney would ever revisit in-house work for their Lucasfilm Games label, or do you see a benefit from multiple gaming companies making the licensed games instead?

I grew up there. I worked at Lucasfilm Games, then LucasArts Entertainment Company, from 1990 to 2004. I started at Skywalker Ranch, which was pretty cool for a 21-year old who grew up with Star Wars. My wife and I met there. Our first daughter was born as we were finishing “Shadows of the Empire” on PC, our second as we were finishing Ep I Racer. I went to Australia to watch Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor perform the final duel of Revenge of the Sith. I got to invite Hayden and stunt coordinator Nick Gillard to LucasArts and teach our animators how Jedi use lightsabers. I got to show ILM how podracers would behave in game, which inspired them to make some changes to how they were approaching that epic sequence in the film. I got to see a ship model I built for a game, the Outrider, appear in Star Wars Episode IV Special Edition on the big screen flying over Mos Eisley. I worked with a lot of extremely talented people. All in all a great experience.

As for future in-house Disney or Lucasfilm Games products, not sure about that. Making games today is a massive undertaking. Hundreds of people, budgets as big or bigger than summer blockbuster movies. You have to simultaneously make cutting edge software that works and make great entertainment. It’s probably best left open to experienced game development teams specializing in genres, but Disney and Lucasfilm Games are in a unique position to provide access to some of the talent and experience, even some of the tech, behind the new films and television series. Give developers what they need to be successful, give them creative freedom (with boundaries), and don’t get in their way.

The “enhanced edition” of the game is now available as a digital download for PS5 and PS4, Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Steam (PC).