‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ – A New Era for the Franchise

Lucasfilm made a pretty big deal about Project Luminous, which was first announced almost a year ago and mysteriously teased a new interconnected series of Star Wars comics and books. Now, it’s been revealed as The High Republic, a set of stories taking place 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace.

As everyone eagerly awaits news about new movies, tentatively announced for 2022, StarWars.com makes it clear that “this period on the Star Wars timeline will not overlap any of the filmed features or series currently planned for production.” So, wherever those next movies are set, this is a different deal.

Although no movies were announced, fans have a lot to look forward to. A book series, starting with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule, The High Republic comic from Cavan Scott, and books by Justina Ireland, and Claudia Gray (all coming out in August 2020), will bring forward this new era for Star Wars.

The first book will introduce the era, and feature a disaster that will be felt across the books, comics and related media. Not much has been revealed about the story, but there are hints about the new villains, The Nihl, described as Space Vikings, and more revelations about the Force.

It’s not the first time the Star Wars franchise has tried to build out an interconnected story universe like this. Previous efforts included the multimedia project Shadows of the Empire, which saw a novel, comic books, toys, a video game, and even a soundtrack released to tell a story set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. There was also the New Jedi Order series of novels, which saw over a dozen authors come together to tell a unified story across 19 novels of the Jedi and the New Republic facing invasion from outside the galaxy.

Lucasfilm will partner with Del Rey, IDW Publishing, and Marvel Comics in this endaevour.

So far the following works have been announced:

Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule (an adult novel)
Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray (a YA novel)
Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland (a middle grade novel)
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures by Daniel José Older (a comic book series from IDW)
Star Wars: The High Republic by Cavan Scott (a comic book series from Marvel)