My partner and I were given the task of coming up with a TV commercial that highlighted the Nissan Rogue’s Pedestrian Forward Emergency Braking, while incorporating elements from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. The catch was that, per Disney brand guidelines, we weren’t allowed to “blend” the Star Wars universe with our ordinary universe—they had to remain separate.

While other Star Wars partners have chosen to use fantasy sequences to get around this “blending” clause, we decided to go an entirely different route—establishing a story where Nissan creates a virtual-reality test course featuring a simulated Star Wars battle.