Now that the long-speculated
Epic Mickey has been officially unveiled, Junction Point Studios' Warren Spector is speaking candidly about the project and his work with Disney -- which goes beyond the Mouse himself.
The veteran Spector revealed to Variety that he actually approached Disney not to tackle a Mickey Mouse project, but to find a publisher for a spiritual heir to his renowned
Deus Ex -- for which he tried unsuccessfully to buy back the rights from Eidos.
"There were and still are
Deus Ex stories I would like to tell. That story is not done for me," he says. However, he says the project wasn't a pure franchise sequel: "I sort of filed the serial numbers off," he says of the concept. "
Deus Ex was very much a game of the millennium."
As it acquired Junction Point in 2007, Disney now owns the rights to the project, leaving the door open for Spector to realize his
Deus Ex successor. Along with that concept, he also brought with him to Disney a fantasy title that may also see development at some point.
He describes a "a big, BIG fantasy game that I had been wanting to do for about 15 years." Spector says he and his wife collaborated on a world and story arc for DC Comics, which DC declined to pick up. "I loved this world and the characters we had created," he laments.