Magic Leap hires co-founder of Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB

Augmented reality money-raiser Magic Leap is still hard at work on that first product, but they’re also continuing to get some pretty notable names to back up their vision. This time they’re adding the co-founder of Lucasfilm’s ILMxLAB immersive visual effects studio.

John Gaeta has joined the Florida-based AR startup as SVP of creative strategy.

Gaeta had been with ILM since 2013 before co-founding the immersive unit in 2015. Previously he was working as the visual effects supervisor on “The Matrix” trilogy where he helped craft the “bullet-time” effect that was one of the franchise’s signature visual techniques.

ILMxLAB has already announced a partnership with Magic Leap to build Star Wars-branded content for the headset. The studio has already produced an experience for VR headsets called Trials of Tatooine. Gaeta tells The Verge, which first reported the news, that he will continue to work with ILMxLab on its projects for Magic Leap.

This hire comes on the heels of the company announcing an additional $502 million in funding, bringing the total capital that they’ve raised to just under $2 billion. The company appears to be gearing up for a product launch, though they’re just as opaque as ever about timing.