Industrial Light & Magic's immersive entertainment division is looking to some major Hollywood talent to create its next Star Wars virtual reality experience, and the lead character is as big as it gets. During a Star Wars Celebration panel, writer David S. Goyer (Batman Begins, Man of Steel) joined ILM'x xLab team to announce that he's working on an original narrative VR experience that will let viewers join in and be part of the story — and the lead character is none other than Darth Vader.

Goyer has been a major creative force in genre films and TV for years, working on everything from Christopher Nolan's Batman films to shows like FlashForward and Constantine, but working on something with xLab is clearly a different kind of challenge altogether. The project is an entirely original story set within the Star Wars universe, written in conjunction with the same brain trust that is overseeing the new live-action films. The untitled Vader project will be so tightly integrated with the overall universe that Lucasfilm creative executive Pablo Hidalgo said its storyline will actually be considered a series canon, alongside the new movies, novels, and comic books. But it won't be the kind of passive experience audiences have when they watch a TV show, or even take on a traditional gaming experience.