Artwork for Star Wars: The High Republic.
Disney/Lucasfilm
In December The Rise of Skywalker ended the Star Wars sequel trilogy. But fear not, Jedis and Sith Lords, Disney and Lucasfilm have plenty of Star Wars in the pipeline for you. On Monday the two companies unveiled Star Wars: The High Republic, formerly known as Project Luminous, which combines novels, children’s books and comics to tell one interconnected story.
The High Republic saga is set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, the first prequel film. That puts it at about 260 years before the original Star Wars flick. At this stage in the Star Wars universe, the Jedi Order still has the Galactic Empire very much under control. No Machiavellian, secretly-Sith politicians around here, no sir.
According to Michael Siglain, director of Lucasfilm Publishing, this quote from Obi-Wan Kenobi is the inspiration for the new saga: “For over a thousand generations the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice.”
“[It’s] a line that we’ve been hearing since 1977, and we thought, ‘what does that look like?'” Siglain explains in a teaser trailer for The High Republic. The teaser also features creators on how they envisage the Jedi of this era as “the Jedi Knights of the Round Table” — which is to say the Jedi Order is at the peak of its heroism and badassery.
But of course, calamity will strike and heroes will be tested. The threat emerges from the Nihil, imagined as “space vikings” that live on the fringe of the Galactic Empire, according to the creators. The Jedi won’t be the only stars though, as new smugglers, scoundrels and bounty hunters will also see time in the spotlight.
Phase one of The High Republic debuts in August at the Star Wars Celebration Anaheim convention, and will feature five releases: young adult novel Into the Dark, middle grade novel A Test of Courage, comic book series The High Republic Adventures, another comic book series (this one from Marvel) called simply The High Republic, and finally a novel called The Light of the Jedi.