Star Wars Zero Company’s Hero Is Spiritually Texan, Lead Actor Says

2 hours ago 18

Published Nov 4, 2026, 12:01 PM EST

Plus the hilarious line that couldn’t make the game

Star Wars protagonists hail from many places. Luke Skywalker was raised on Tatooine, like his father before him. Padmé Amidala grew up on Naboo before residing on Coruscant. If you listen to Hawks, the player character in Bit Reactor’s strategy game Star Wars Zero Company, you might think he’s from Texas.

“Sometimes when I'm very comfortable in the skin of the character I'm playing, [my Texas accent] kind of seeps out,” Jonathan Freeman told Polygon. He voiced the male version of Hawks, the leader of the titular Zero Company. “I thought that it kind of leaned into a bit of the weatheredness of the guy,” he said.

Hawks may not actually be from Texas, but that’s where Freeman grew up. His drawl immediately makes Hawks sound unique, and he’s also unique as a Star Wars lead in that his appearance can be fully customized. Hawks can even be different species, like a Twi'lek or a Mirialan. But, no matter, they’ll all sound Texan. “It is kind of funny to see these different species with this slight twang.”

Freeman felt at home as Hawks from the jump. “It's very rare. You can go through hundreds of auditions and then one will come along on a cellular level you just sort of get,” Freeman said. “I felt comfortable at the audition, I felt comfortable at the callback, and then at the table read, it was just immediate.”

Freeman singled out Hawks’ passion and empathy as traits that drew him to the character. Hawks was a former captain in the Grand Army of the Republic before being scapegoated after a lost battle. He left the Republic to form the mercenary group Zero Company. “[He’s] a guy who didn't wanna show up anymore, tries his hardest not to show up, but still shows up because he loves people.” Zero Company’s writing is excellent overall, and Freeman credited the game’s strong script for helping him connect with the character so seamlessly.

Some of those great moments and lines were written on the fly. During one scene, Hawks is infected with the Shadow Plague by Fathom, the game’s big bad, and left worse for wear. Armourer Neesh asks Hawks how he’s feeling, and his original response was something like a very simple, “Not great.” While on set, Freeman had an idea: He told the writers how in Texas, he’d reply with sayings like “I feel hotter than a $2 pistol” or “colder than a witch's teat.” He asked the writers what the Star Wars version of those colloquialisms would be.

“Their eyes lit up,” Freeman said. “They leave for half an hour. They come back with three pages of Star Wars versions of that.” Freeman recorded all the new Star Wars colloquialisms in sequence, and the final line ended up being, “It feels like the inside of a mynock’s suckhole, Pops.”

It’s a very Star-Wars-meets-Texan thing for Hawks to say, but Hawks’ female counterpart, played by Erica Luttrell, doesn’t have the same Texan drawl. “I think originally maybe they wanted her to mimic [me], but they ended up letting her just have a blank slate, which I think is pretty cool,” Freeman said.

Though the writing is the same, the differences in Freeman and Luttrell’s performances give Hawks different layers. “There's a bit more stank on her performance,” Freeman said. “She's a bit more of an ass kicker.”

With several choices to make in Star Wars Zero Company, it’s a very replayable game, and the distinct performances from the two versions of the protagonist make it worth revisiting even more. “Hearing what she did, it is really like two fully fleshed-out individuals,” Freeman said. “Her whole approach is just a different perspective than my Hawks.”

That freedom resulted in some moments that couldn’t make it into the game, but were important in allowing the actors to feel comfortable and loose on set. Freeman recounted a story that he called a “highlight of my career.”

At one point, Hawks carries out a mission with Anakin Skywalker and Umbaran soldier Luco Bronc. At the end, after Anakin has taken down a ship and jumped onto a platform, the three of them convene. “One of their lines is, ‘Nice shot.’ The other guy says, ‘Nice work.’ And then I joined them and I just said, ‘Nice ass.’ And everybody just lost it.” (In the final cutscene, Hawks doesn’t have any “nice” line.)

That joke wouldn’t fly in a Star Wars story, but it did result in a treat for Freeman. “We had a wrap party and they made a cake and it said, ‘Nice shot, nice work, nice ass.’ That kind of gives you the vibe of the set.”

2026 has seen countless top-notch video games come out, and it’s not clear yet where Star Wars Zero Company will land in end-of-year award races. Regardless, players are loving it. “I've never been a part of something with such a reception. So it's been very, very fun,” Freeman said.

“Everybody seems to get what we were trying to do. All of the stuff we were trying to put in and make important, people are verbalizing back,” he added.

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Freeman, his fellow cast members, and the teams at Bit Reactor all shared a goal in shining a light on corners of the galaxy that often get overlooked in other Star Wars stories. They wanted to show “how what happens in the larger story affects the everyday man,” like in the game’s huge Order 66 moment.

“Hawks isn't a Jedi. Hawks isn't special. He's just a dude who was in the service, who got screwed over, and now is just trying to eke out a living,” Freeman said. Hawks “has to deal with the consequences of these decisions that are being made at the top. It really mirrors where we're at. And I think the importance of relationships and community and coming together — it all came through.”

Star Wars Zero Company is out now on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

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