'You can pull from all the different time periods' — Galactic Racer devs outline how the upcoming game's 'post-war' Outer Rim setting lets it reflect every era of Star Wars

Star Wars: Galactic Racer has call-backs that span the whole film series Iconic locations and recognizable characters will appear in the upcoming racing game The game's set to launch on October 6, 2026 Star Wars: Galactic Racer is shaping up to be the ultimate racing experience for Star Wars fans, letting you speed through a mix of new beloved locations (including the iconic Boonta Eve Classic course) as legendary characters like Sebulba and Ben Quadinaros.

It's not all based on The Phantom Menace, though, and in my recent couple of hours hands-on with the game, I spent plenty of time in the sandy starship-strewn desert of Jakku, seen in The Force Awakens , and other recognizable planets that haven't been revealed quite yet.

The game takes place in the Outer Rim, the perilous outskirts of the galaxy, in the New Republic Era right after the events of Return of the Jedi .

According to Lucasfilm Games executive producer Craig Derrick, the setting was chosen because the game is "about telling a local story" rather than a grand intergalactic conflict.

"Sometimes putting a story in the Outer Rim helps distance it a little bit from all the bigger stakes that you see sometimes in our films," he says.

"And it shows that these characters have a real life." The team also says the decision was inspired by real-world history.

"We wanted to tell a story of the beginning of this league and how it's put together," begins Kieran Crimmins, creative director at developer Fuse Games.

"And there was a kind of mirroring there of real life.

The empire has just fallen, so a little bit like the end of World War Two.

Here, there was a big rise in racing with all the ex-pilots, and ex-military people who were still very capable behind the wheel, becoming pilots." This is best exemplified by Griff Halloran (who some might recognize from the Star Wars Resistance animated series), an ex-Tie fighter pilot who still wears his battered old armor in-game.

The chosen time period also gives the team plenty of license to draw on all the Star Wars movies in some way.

"There's a great thing where you can pull from all the different time periods," adds Crimmins.

"Particularly the kind of original trilogy and the prequel trilogy, and there is an absolute plethora of depth, not only in lore and character, but also the machines used and the design language used." Star Wars: Galactic Racer launches for Xbox Series X and Series S , PlayStation 5 , and PC on October 6, 2026.