Wing Commander IV's Lost Hellcats Found
In yesterday's update about connections between Wing Commander and Star Wars, we mentioned that the Hellcat takeoff scene from the Wing Commander IV intro had been the last one created. It turns out that that story hasn't been widely told… and it answers a small mystery the fandom has wondered about for almost thirty years!
Here's the story: As Wing Commander IV was preparing for launch, Chris Roberts wasn't happy with the game's introduction. He felt that the game's cinematic introduction wasn't doing enough to capture the player. A long standing philosophy at Origin was that the most effort (and by implication money) should be spent on the opening of a given game because that more than anything was what could guarantee a title would capture the player's attention. And Wing Commander IV had a spectacular intro… although it was one already compromised by the film shoot running out of time for the intended sequence on Blair's farm.
In November 1995, the game received a much needed six week delay which would allow for important polishing. This also gave Chris Roberts time to recut the introduction with the goal of making it more snappy and immersive. The team conducted a small series of reshoots of the pilot reactions from the first sequence and then the Assembly scene was significantly cut down, mostly dropping reaction shots from the various senators. The canteen scene was also tightened up with fewer shots of the location. Finally, the Nephele "takeoff" was completely redone: the original two shots were replaced with the new 'Star Wars' inspired one and one of the Hellcats in orbit.
The original starport takeoff scene was, however, included in one of the early trailers for the game. We just didn't know what it was! Fans speculated that this was from some sort of cancelled atmospheric mission… the reality is that the shot in the trailer was the original Nephele takeoff! The second shot, of the Hellcats boosting into the upper atmosphere, was not in the trailer and survives only as a screenshot. Here's the breakdown:
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