Rand was based on the singer Robert Palmer, and the character's costume design draws from Solo's attire. During the design process, it was decided that Atton should serve as a love interest for the player character, and he was made younger from the original concept. His name was originally the unused name of the main character of Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy early during the game's development: the player character of Jedi Academy was eventually named Jaden Korr. This is referenced as an easter egg in The Sith Lord's final release. Will Beckman and Darragh O'Farrell, then-voice directors at LucasArts, explained in a 2004 interview with GameSpot that they "wanted to stick with something of a formula" when they set out to cast and record the game's characters. They wanted to preserve the "same sort of genuine Star Wars feel" which was successfully captured in the first game; for example, they considered casting a professional Han Solo impersonator for Atton at one point, as they desired an actor whose voice is reminiscent of a young Harrison Ford. Atton was ultimately given more of a unique identity as they decided against the idea of a straightforward imitation, and would encourage the actor to bring their own personality to the character. They also learned from experience that video games dialogue were often written more like adventure game text than a film script, and as such they required actors who could competently portray "snappy dialogue" from their reading of paragraph text. The role of Atton eventually went to Nicky Katt; Beckman and O'Farrell considered him to be a fresh voice who was not part of the "usual pool of voice actors who have performed in most video games at the time", and praised him for bringing the "tempo and energy needed to carry that first part of the game where he has a lot of dialogue". They also noted Katt's physical resemblance to Menze's concept drawings of the character. Atton was featured in a number of plot scenarios that were eventually cut from the final game. One particular cut content of note is a boss encounter which hinges on Atton's solitary participation at a predetermined point in the narrative, where the player assumes control of him to fight off the Sith Lord Darth Sion. In one proposed ending, if the Exile is female, he would die from wounds inflicted by Sion if