Alexander Freed

Alexander Freed's writing journey began in 2002 when his short fiction was published. He then worked as a freelance designer for tabletop roleplaying games until August 2006. He subsequently joined BioWare Austin as a writer for the video game Star Wars: The Old Republic. Production on the game had commenced the previous year, and Daniel Erickson, the lead writer, was assembling a team to develop the setting and narrative. The game's story revolved around eight distinct character classes. Freed became the primary writer for one of these classes: the Imperial Agent. He transformed the initial concept of the character, which was intended to mirror James Bond, the famous movie spy, into a more serious character facing difficult choices, drawing inspiration from characters in the TV action series 24 and the spy thriller Bourne Identity, while still incorporating elements from classic spy films. Notably, this class was the only one not based on a Star Wars movie character. As a Senior Writer and Managing Editor, Freed also contributed to the creation of substantial non-class-specific content and assisted Erickson in managing the writing team. Furthermore, he authored three articles for the game's official website. These articles covered topics such as writing within the Star Wars universe, an introduction to the Imperial Agent, and the game's adaptation into comics and novels. When the game launched on December 20, 2011, he received credit as Sub-Lead Writer.

While his work on the game continued, Freed also created two The Old Republic comic miniseries for Dark Horse Comics: Star Wars: The Old Republic, Blood of the Empire and Star Wars: The Old Republic—The Lost Suns. Blood of the Empire, featuring art by penciler Dave Ross, inker Mark McKenna, and colorist Michael Atiyeh, was initially presented as a free webcomic on the game's official website. It was released in twelve parts, each consisting of seven pages, between April 23 and September 24 in 2010. Lacking experience with the pacing of such a short serialized narrative, Freed studied weekly comics like 2000 AD to prepare. Blood of the Empire follows the journey of Tenel Keb and his transformation into Darth Thanaton. The story has direct connections to the Sith Inquisitor and Jedi Consular storylines in the video game. It also delves into the culture of the Sith Empire. The comic was re-edited into three physical issues during the latter half of 2010 and then into a trade paperback edition on February 2, 2011.

His second comic miniseries, The Lost Suns, featured art by pencilers George Freeman, Dave Ross, and David Daza, inker Mark McKenna, and colorist Michael Atiyeh. It was released in five physical issues between June 3 and October 12 in 2011. Subsequently, they were compiled into a trade paperback edition released on March 21, 2012. In contrast to previous The Old Republic comics, this story unfolds concurrently with the events of the game and was described by Freed as a "ninth story" running parallel to the eight class storylines. The comics center on Theron Shan, a republic spy and a new character notably absent from the base game.

As The Old Republic was being released near the end of 2011, BioWare Austin continued its work on the game, delivering content updates and planning an expansion: Star Wars: The Old Republic: Rise of the Hutt Cartel, which was revealed on December 12, 2012. Freed served as the Lead Writer for the majority of the expansion's development, overseeing the writing team and making significant content contributions, especially for the Imperial storyline on Makeb. While Rise of the Hutt Cartel was still in progress, Freed, after six years as a writer at Bioware, chose to leave the company on October 5, 2012, to pursue a freelance career. The following day, he participated in the "Star Wars Reads Day" event.

Before his departure from BioWare, Freed left another mark on The Old Republic with "The Last Battle of Colonel Jace Malcom," a short story published in Star Wars Insider 137 in October 2012. This story focuses on Jace Malcom and is set after the events of the game. It serves as an introduction to Drew Karpyshyn's The Old Republic: Annihilation, released on November 13, 2012, and features Theron Shan, as well as Teff'ith, characters initially developed by Freed in The Lost Stars.

When The Rise of the Hutt Cartel was released on April 14, 2013, Freed was credited as Principal Writer, with Charles Boyd and Hall Hood succeeding him as co-Lead Writers. Reflecting on The Old Republic, Freed expressed immense pride in having worked on the project alongside a highly talented team. He also conveyed his deep gratitude for being part of something that held significant meaning for numerous fans. He further stated his pride in contributing to the inclusion of some of the first LGBT characters in Star Wars through his work on Rise of the Hutt Cartel.

Freed expressed his desire to write a third comic story during an interview prior to the release of The Lost Suns. Although he didn't receive the opportunity to write a third The Old Republic comic, Dark Horse Comics continued to collaborate with him on another franchise: Dragon Age. However, Freed soon returned to Star Wars, this time with a two-part comic series: Star Wars: Purge: The Tyrant's Fist, featuring art by pencilers/inkers Marco Castiello and Andrea Chella, and colorist Michael Atiyeh. It was released on December 5, 2012, and January 2, 2013. Set within the timeline of the previous Purge comics, which were one-shot stories focused on the early years of the Galactic Empire as Darth Vader sought to eliminate the remaining members of the Jedi Order, Freed used this opportunity to examine the cultural prevalence and rich history of the Jedi and how they vanished from the galactic stage. All Purge stories were later compiled into a single trade paperback edition, released on July 10, 2013.

Freed then wrote the 2015 Del Rey novel Battlefront: Twilight Company, a tie-in to the video game Star Wars Battlefront that was released in the same year. In that same year, he also contributed to the video game Star Wars: Uprising as a writer. Following this, he wrote for the video game Star Wars Battlefront II and authored the short stories "Contingency Plan" and "The Man Who Built Cloud City" for the short story collections From a Certain Point of View, released in 2017, and From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, released in 2020, respectively. Around the same period, he also penned the Star Wars: Alphabet Squadron trilogy. The first book, Alphabet Squadron, came out in 2019, followed by the second, Shadow Fall, in 2020, and the third, Victory's Price, in 2021.

• Official website
• Alexander Freed on LinkedIn (backup link (in/alexandermfreed) not verified!)
• Alexander Freed ( @AlexanderMFreed ) on Twitter (backup link (AlexanderMFreed) not verified!)
• Alexander Freed on MobyGames
• Alexander Freed Talks Shadow Fall, the Conclusion of The Alphabet Squadron Trilogy, and More! on the Star Wars Explained YouTube channel (backup link)