Google's Star Wars VR transports you into The Force Awakens

This article is a preview of WIRED magazine 01.16, our Star Wars special issue featuring J.J. Abrams, on sale from December 10 2015. Follow our Star Wars: The Force Awakenshub page for all of our web, print and behind-the-scenes coverage.

As the relentless Force of nature that is Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens barrels ever closer toward its December release, Google has revealed a second wave of content produced alongside the film -- this time in virtual reality.

Google has worked with Disney to make two VR 'experiences' available for its Cardboard platform that it says will "combine a compelling story, which ties directly into the opening of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, with the very latest cutting-edge Virtual Reality technology".

The VR films will be released on the Star Wars app for both iOS and Android, and will work with the Google Cardboard range of make-at-home VR headsets.

Created by ILMxLAB (the Industrial Light & Magic, Lucasfilm and Skywalker Sounds entertainment lab) the films are still mysterious. But judging from a preview film about potential Star Wars VR ideas, it is possible that the films will be shot from 'within' a battle featuring stormtroopers, TIE fighters and someone with apparently instinctive abilities to wield the Force.

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Judging by the recent Star Wars Battlefront -- which while not a completely impressive video game, is at least an intensely immersive portal into the Star Wars universe -- the potential for something quite transformative is clearly there.

Admittedly, VR tech might need to develop some way before a virtual Star Wars experience could be more than a curiosity. But based on early sales reports about Samsung's Gear VR headset and great expectations around PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift, we might get there quicker than anticipated.

The Google Cardboard promotion was announced alongside a wider integration of the films with Google's productivity apps, which feature the ability for moral absolutists to choose either the light or dark sides with which to theme their email, and by extension their souls.

This article was originally published by WIRED UK