Star Wars: Galactic Racer Gave Its Alien Mechanic a Scouse Accent. The Actor Pitched It Herself
Star Wars: Galactic Racer is three days from launch, and Fuse Games has spent its final week of build-up putting names to voices. The standout is Hibi, a four-armed Ardennian mechanic who sounds like she grew up on Merseyside. That was the actor’s idea, not the studio’s.
Fuse Games, the Guildford studio set up by former Criterion developers, has been releasing a run of short videos called Sounds of the Galactic League. Each one introduces an actor and the character they play in the racer, which Secret Mode publishes on October 6 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC. By October 1, three of the main voices had names: Lucy Montgomery as Hibi, Andrew James Spooner as Darius Pax and Kris Laudrum as Kestar Bool.
The game is set in the early days of the New Republic, after the Empire’s ban on high-stakes racing falls with the Empire itself. Players race as Shade, a newcomer in an unsanctioned circuit called the Galactic League, across landspeeders, speeder bikes, skim speeders and podracers. Between races there’s a paddock where Shade talks with the other characters, and that’s where most of the voice work lives.
“The moment we heard that”
Hibi was the hardest to cast, according to Nathaniel Daw, Fuse’s music and narrative director. “Hibi was initially a real challenge to find a voice for,” he told Star Wars News Net. “As Shade’s main companion and ally they needed to be a friendly, welcoming personality, but still capturing the enthusiasm and passion for repulsorcraft that makes Hibi so special.”
Then Montgomery, a British actor and comedian, made a suggestion. “Hibi’s voice actor Lucy Montgomery was the one who first suggested a voice based on the Liverpool (or Scouse) accent and the moment we heard that we knew we’d found our Hibi,” Daw said. “Lucy brings so much energy and joy to the character, and as a result Hibi is a hilarious delight in every scene.”
It’s a small choice with a big footprint. Hibi isn’t a cameo. She repairs and upgrades Shade’s vehicles, she runs the shop where players spend their winnings on parts, and she hosts Fuse’s Under the Hood video series, which has been walking players through each vehicle class for weeks. Anyone following the game’s build-up has been hearing that accent since long before the actor had a name.
Fuse’s own video introducing Montgomery and Hibi is on the game’s official YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKo2Ro6I62w
Montgomery isn’t new to the galaxy. SWTOR Strategies notes that she did voice work on LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, though the credits don’t tie her to a named character, and that her game work includes Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty and Forza Motorsport.
For working actors, the lesson is an old one that still gets forgotten. Casting notes describe a feeling, friendly and welcoming and obsessed with engines, and leave the sound open. The actor who walks in with a specific, unexpected answer to that brief can end up owning the part.
A showman and a bully
Darius Pax was the first voice anyone heard from the game. The Besalisk founder of the Galactic League announced himself with the line “I want it back.” For him Fuse cast veteran voice actor Andrew James Spooner. “Pax is a perennial showman, always drumming up support for this League of his, a League that’s the culmination of years of dreaming and hustling,” Daw said. “Andrew’s performance was perfect for delivering this, a blend of gravitas and charisma, but with the exuberant overconfidence that makes Darius Pax who he is.”
Then there’s the villain. Star Wars has a long habit of British bad guys, and Galactic Racer keeps it going with Kris Laudrum as Kestar Bool, the reigning champion whose family ties give him a grip on the league. “Kestar Bool needed to be instantly established as the entitled Caskadag that he is,” Daw said. “Voice actor Kris Laudrum delivered an incredible performance dripping with arrogance and establishes the stakes so well for the conflict between him and Shade.”
Image: Secret Mode and Fuse Games
Daw’s description of the performance reads like a director’s note, which is more or less what it was. “Kris made Kestar show all his entitlement and privilege, but behind it we hear someone who is terrified that they’ll not live up to their father’s expectation,” he said, calling the mix “a deadly blend of rage, superiority, and desperation.”
VoiceEditSuiteRaw take in. Clean take out.That’s the part worth stealing. A bully who’s only a bully is easy to play and easy to forget. Daw wanted the fear under the sneer, and in a racing game, where a rival might get a handful of lines between laps, that layer has to land fast.
Hibi
Lucy Montgomery. A four-armed mechanic who fixes your speeder, sells you parts and talks you through every vehicle. The Scouse accent was her own pitch.
Kestar Bool
Kris Laudrum. The champion who got there on family connections. Arrogance on top, a son scared of his father underneath.
What the first reviews heard
Reviews landed on October 2, and the voices came up more than you’d expect for a racer. Traxion called the story “not the most engrossing tale ever told in the Star Wars universe, but it’s well executed, with an eclectic voice cast giving the supporting characters strong personalities.” The site singled out the mechanic: “Hibi, your trusty four-armed mechanic, is a particular standout with their Scouse accent.”
Image: Secret Mode and Fuse Games
TheSixthAxis said the campaign works “incredibly well” for a racing game, adding that “the narrative drive is given all the more impact thanks to the excellent Star Wars-accurate creatures, locations, voice acting and tone.”
The Gaming Outsider was glad the hero talks. “Thankfully, Shade actually has a voice as opposed to being a silent protagonist,” its reviewer wrote. “I was pleasantly surprised by the high-quality voice acting, especially when the game could have done without it completely.”
That last line is the honest version of an old argument. Racing games have often got by with an announcer and a few shouted barks. Fuse chose to spend on a talking cast with real characters, and the early reviews suggest players will notice.
The rest of the paddock
Fuse hasn’t finished. The paddock is full of other racers, and Star Wars News Net expects that “there may be more voices to reveal as the release of the game swiftly approaches.”
Two familiar names are hovering. Lewis MacLeod voiced Sebulba in The Phantom Menace and has gone back to the character since. SWTOR Strategies reports that the fan convention Rebel Scum Con has described him as having “more Sebulba on the way” in Galactic Racer, where Sebulba is playable. Fuse hasn’t named him.
Griff Halloran, the former Imperial pilot from Star Wars Resistance, also turns up as a younger version of himself. His original voice actor, Stephen Stanton, confirmed the character’s identity after the story trailer appeared. As SWTOR Strategies points out, he hasn’t said whether he recorded the role.
The full answer arrives on October 6, when the game is out and the credits are there for anyone who finishes the campaign. For a cast that’s been heard for weeks before being named, it’ll be a welcome roll call.
Sources: Star Wars News Net (Aled Morgan, 1 October 2026); SWTOR Strategies (23 September 2026); reviews from Traxion, TheSixthAxis and The Gaming Outsider (2 October 2026); Steam store page (Secret Mode); review aggregates as listed on Wikipedia. Images: Secret Mode and Fuse Games.
Lee este artículo en español: Star Wars: Galactic Racer le dio acento de Liverpool a su mecánica alienígena. Fue idea de la actriz
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