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Darth Vader VR series is coming to Facebook's Oculus Quest next year

Vader Immortal wants to bring Darth Vader's castle from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story into your living room.

Joan E. Solsman Former Senior Reporter
Joan E. Solsman was CNET's senior media reporter, covering the intersection of entertainment and technology. She's reported from locations spanning from Disneyland to Serbian refugee camps, and she previously wrote for Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. She bikes to get almost everywhere and has been doored only once.
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Joan E. Solsman
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Facebook's Oculus laid out its plans for the coming year, including a Darth Vader series, at its Oculus Connect developer conference.

Facebook's Oculus laid out its plans for the coming year, including a Darth Vader series, at its Oculus Connect developer conference. 

 James Martin/CNET

Darth Vader is coming to virtual reality. He's used to wearing heavy, awkward head gear, at least.

Oculus, the virtual reality arm of Facebook, said the first episode of a three-part VR series about Darth Vader would premiere with its upcoming Oculus Quest headsets, which are set to be released next spring for $399.

"You'll be able to step inside the world of Star Wars inside your living room," said Vicki Dobbs Beck, the executive in charge of ILMxLab, the immersive entertainment branch of Star Wars maker Lucasfilm. The announcement was made during a keynote address at Facebook's annual VR developer conference, Oculus Connect.

Even now in VR's early stages as a mass medium, the Star Wars franchise has been active in the format. A ride-like experience, Star Wars: Secrets of the Empire, opened late last year at the Disney Springs shopping center in Orlando. And Google developed a VR tool last year with ILMxLab to help make high quality, cinematic images play well in a VR headset.

Watch this: Star Wars: Vader Immortal VR experience hitting Oculus Quest in 2019

Vader Immortal, as the new series is called, is being created with David S. Goyer, the screenwriter behind films like The Dark Knight trilogy. Goyer previously helped develop Secrets of the Empire in virtual reality for ILMxLab. 

The story of Vader Immortal is set up by the events in Secrets of the Empire and takes place between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and the experience will take you to Darth Vader's castle seen in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

It'll give you "an up-close look into the mind of Vader," Goyer said. It will also let the viewer take an active role in the story, and it'll take advantage of the physical movement tracking -- known as six degrees of freedom, or 6DoF -- that Facebook says Oculus Quest will deliver.   

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