Kurt Kuhlmann, a designer who once worked on The Elder Scrolls 6, has shared his vision for the game. He said that if he had his way, the story would have been similar to the famous Star Wars movie, The Empire Strikes Back.

Kuhlmann spent twenty years working at Bethesda Game Studios. He helped create nearly every Elder Scrolls game and was a co-lead designer on Skyrim. He told PCGamer that his idea involved the Thalmor, the game’s villains, winning temporarily. This would lead to a cliffhanger, giving players a chance for revenge in the next game, The Elder Scrolls 7.

“I had in my mind that TES6 was going to be like The Empire Strikes Back,” Kuhlmann said. In his version, the player might secretly save the day by rescuing a future king or queen. However, it would still look like the Thalmor were winning the war. He believed this would be a good change from the usual ‘chosen one’ storylines found in other Elder Scrolls games.

According to Kuhlmann, Bethesda boss Todd Howard verbally offered him the lead designer role on The Elder Scrolls 6. This happened right after the team finished working on Skyrim. The studio’s plan was to make Fallout 4 first and then return to the fantasy series. But things changed. The studio’s attention shifted to Fallout 76, and later to Starfield. This meant it would be eleven years before Bethesda properly started working on the next Elder Scrolls game.

By the time the project started moving again, Kuhlmann was ready for the job. He had been working as a lead systems designer on Starfield. “I was obviously one of the old-timers there and had a lot of experience,” he said. “Bruce [Nesmith] and I had been the co-leads on Skyrim. I think most people would call it a successful project.” He felt it was reasonable to think he could lead The Elder Scrolls 6 successfully. He added, “It wasn’t just my expectation – I had been told that that was going to happen.”

However, the studio eventually made a different decision. They told Kuhlmann he would not be the lead designer. Bethesda offered him a different role on the project instead. Kuhlmann described it as “an important role,” which Todd Howard called it. But Kuhlmann said, “What I wanted and what he wanted were different at that point.” There was no mention of the promise made years earlier. The studio had also grown larger during the development of Starfield, with teams working across multiple locations. These factors contributed to Kuhlmann’s decision to leave Bethesda in 2023.

Despite leaving, Kuhlmann acknowledges that leading The Elder Scrolls 6 today is very different from leading Skyrim in 2011. The role has changed significantly. He also doubts that his Empire Strikes Back idea would have worked with the current team. Ending a game with a loss and a cliffhanger is risky. He noted that it is “not a good way to end a game and say, yeah, we’ll see you in 10, 15 years.”

The Elder Scrolls 6 was announced very early at E3 in 2018, before Starfield was even finished. Todd Howard said last November that the game is still “a long way off.” However, it sounds like the long pre-production phase is done. Most of the studio is now working on the game. Fans are eagerly waiting to play it, though it may not arrive until 2030.