The first look at LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga's next DLC playable character, Luke Starkiller, has been released.
Since releasing just over a year ago, TT Games has brought LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga fans an abundance of bonus DLC characters, primarily branching from the many TV shows in the galaxy far, far away.
While the Character Collection packs all came for a price, there have been some free additions, including four new ships and now a new playable character coming soon to celebrate the imminent Star Wars Day.
First Look at New LEGO Star Wars Character
The official Star Wars site recently confirmed a new playable character will be coming to LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga as part of the May 4 (Star Wars Day) celebrations. The new brick-built character will go by "Luke Starkiller" - which was actually George Lucas' original name for Luke Skywalker.
Twitter user @A7ZATRU has since been able to share the first look at Luke Starkiller through a "Celebrate Star Wars Day punch card" for Xbox reward points. Among the tasks on the menu is to play The Skywalker Saga by May 4, and that came accompanied by a picture of the new hero wielding his yellow lightsaber.
In another early version of the original Star Wars script, Lucas had another character involved called Deak Starkiller. The latest look at Luke Starkiller in The Skywalker Saga has a strong resemblance to concept art from Ralph McQuarrie of Deak facing an early design of Darth Vader.
The Luke Starkiller DLC addition will mark the first DLC addition of 2023, following the release of 30 new characters late last year as part of Character Collection 2. This included new characters straight out of The Clone Wars, Rebels, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Book of Boba Fett, and the LEGO Summer Vacation TV Special.
Does LEGO Star Wars Have a DLC Future?
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga dropped an almost 3GB update in February which left fans confused about what may be coming, particularly as no major bugs were even solved. It now seems this was planting the seed for Luke Starkiller and perhaps further DLC to come, as 3GB is rather large for just one character.
News of The Skywalker Saga's imminent free addition comes after reports that a Mandalorian-based DLC may have been canceled due to troubles at developer TT Games. Although many Mandalorian characters have already come to the game, this was supposedly set to be a narrative-based DLC.
Recognizing Star Wars' roots through Luke Starkiller is certainly a clever way for The Skywalker Saga to get involved in the annual May 4 celebration. However, one has to wonder what the future may hold for the LEGO title, especially if a larger narrative-based DLC has indeed now been abandoned.
LEGO games have rarely been ones to go big on DLC expansions, with that generally just limited to additional playable characters. But as modern gaming increasingly turns to live-service models where post-launch content is all but expected, future titles may need to step up their game on that front.
LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is available now.
