Sleeping Beauty and Snow White inspired Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell

Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell, the forthcoming standalone expansion to the Saints Row series, drew inspiration from an unlikely source, according to creative director Steve Jaros: Disney movies.

Speaking to Polygon, Jaros said there was a different intention behind each Saints Row game. The original title was inspired by hip hop music videos. The sequel pushed the series' outlandishness and irreverence a little further. The third went all out, and the fourth introduced the supernatural and super powers. When it came to Gat Out of Hell, the development team saw an opportunity to experiment with one of Jaros' big loves — Disney.

"I wanted [Gat Out of Hell] to feel like a Disney movie, a Disney fairytale, with whimsical love songs," Jaros said. "So we got to play with a lot of tropes that are standard in the fairytale space. If you watch something like Sleeping Beauty, a birthday party is what kicks off the terrible events, so a birthday party kicks off our terrible event. Jezebel is a happy princess and, in hell, rebellion is to be happy, so she rebels against her father [Satan] by saying she doesn't want to be forced to marry anybody she doesn't love.

"And instead of having talking animals, we have a talking gun."

The Disney parody also includes musical numbers where everyone, including Satan, sings about their feelings.

In creating an open-world hell, Jaros said the development team wanted to design a fun toy box that catered to flight. Players will be able to traverse hell by air with the help of a pair of demon wings, summon demons in combat, and use weapons inspired by the seven deadly sins, like the Gluttony Gun, which covers enemies in cake batter and gets other people to try to eat them.

"It allowed us to explore things a little differently," Jaros said. "It's been a really interesting experiment."