Fire up your converters, prepare for a jump to hyperspace, and get ready to explore a new Star Wars series set in a different time. On February 24th Lucasfilm announced a new Star Wars series interconnected with books, comic books and young adult novels. The title of the series is The High Republic. The first thing that may come to mind is Jedi sitting around the council chamber sharing some death sticks, or maybe Obi Wan running around attacking people from the high ground. Alas, no. This series is set to take place around 200 years before the Skywalker Saga. The time period is being described as the “Golden Age” of the republic, a time of peace after the old republic. Lucasfilm has hinted in their reveal trailer that it will be a time of peace but something will happen, a great disaster, that will call all the Jedi into action and kick off the new stories.
These stories will introduce a whole new cast of characters, and not just Jedi. There will of course be scoundrels, droids, bounty hunters, and others one would expect from a good Star Wars story. The new characters will each have his own story arc but it will be intertwined with the others and reference one another. Of course with new Jedi comes a new threat to the galaxy. This comes in the form of a group called the Nile. Not much is known about the Nile as of yet other than they are described as “space vikings” and live by the creed “You cant take it with you but we can take it from you”.
What is new with this series and what can we expect? Based on concept art we can expect to see a new style of Jedi robes as well as new lightsaber hilt designs as well as lightsaber colors not seen in Star Wars cannon. We can also expect lots of Star Wars fun we have come to expect, space battles, ground battles, and a view of the force that may be completely different that what we have seen before. It’s possible too that a young Yoda could make an appearance since he would only be around 700 years old at the time. While Lucasfilm has neither confirmed or denied this they are pretty good about keeping things close to the chest. I think “baby Yoda” from The Mandalorian took most of us by surprise. Its possible also that we could see the Sith. They would be in hiding at this point, exercising the rule of two waiting to make their emergence.
Photo courtesy of StarWars.com
The biggest question is “Will this move on beyond books and comic books?” While nothing more has been announced the creative team has been working on this since 2018 and there are at least three Star Wars movies on Disney’s list to make starting in 2022. None of these movies have titles as of yet so its possible that at least one of them could be linked to the High Republic. That being said it wouldn’t surprise fans if Disney used their streaming service again and created another show be it animated or live action about this new era. Video Games are always a possibility as well. That is a great way to tell another story with out using TV or movies.
This series has the potential to be great and put Star Wars back on the right track after the mixed feelings that the sequel trilogy gave the fanbase. A mass event has happened before in Star Wars lore with Shadows of the Empire. That spawned a book, comic series, video game and even a soundtrack. Now there is a whole new take and a new time period to explore, new characters to fall in love with and a brand new adventure. I personally can hardly wait.The first novel, due out August 25, will launch us all into a new time set in the galaxy far, far away.
