Gears 6 art direction could draw inspiration from The Handmaid's Tale

Gears 5's art director Aryan Hanbeck is drawing inspiration from the TV adaption of Margaret Atwood's dystopian drama The Handmaid's Tale for the design of a potential Gears 6. In an interview for game composer Hamidreza Nikoofar's Wassup Conversations podcast, Hanbeck spoke extensively about how The Coalition created the art for Gears 5 and said that he's been encouraging the artists to watch The Handmaid's Tale for a possible future entry in the Gears franchise.  

"I've been telling all the artists nonstop to go watch Handmaid's Tale" Hanbeck said, "the composition, the colour, and just the cinematography and symbolism is just off the charts… So I watched that and I'm like, 'Wow, we gotta find a way to get more of this stuff in Gears 6.'" 

The Handmaid's Tale is dripping in symbolism and its dystopian world setting is very dark in tone, which is reflected in the series cinematography and lighting. 

As one of the Microsoft's longest running and successful franchises we wouldn't be so surprised if the Coalition is working on another game in the series already. Nothing official has been confirmed about a potential Gears 6 so far, and since Gears 5 only came out recently back in September, we're not likely to hear any sort of news about it quite some time. 

But the fact that it's being talked about indicates we could see more of the series in the future. We don't know how a new Gears game could shape up, especially considering it would likely land on the next-gen Xbox Project Scarlett console, but it'll be interesting to see just the studio could incorporate the inspiration drawn from The Handmaid's Tale into Gears distinctive art style. 

Just diving into Gears 5 yourself? Here are all the Gears 5 tips you need to stop the swarm, or you can watch the video below: