The all-new storytelling experience from Star Wars “The High Republic” is officially launching this week and to celebrate, Star Wars hosted the five authors and creators of the series for a live-streamed event on YouTube.
The event, hosted by Kristin Baver, introduced the five authors of this original series, and took a deeper dive into what’s to come with the latest series “Star Wars: The High Republic.”
Lucasfilm’s Michael Siglain said the new series takes place centuries before The Phantom Menace when the Republic is in a time of peace when the Jedi Knights are at their peak.
“It’s their golden age of the Jedi that we’ve seen hinted about but we’ve never seen in current fiction,” he said during the livestream. “It’s an original cross-publisher event in its own corner of the galaxy.”
The High Republic will encompass not just the Jedi Knights but the Republic as a whole while it’s expanding across the ever-growing universe. Baver said while there isn’t a Galactic war going on and the looming presence of the Sith is not present, there still will be conflict and strife in the universe for the characters of the High Republic to face.
The series will start with a “great disaster”
Charles Soule revealed during the launch event that his book, Light of the Jedi will start with a great disaster involving hyperspace in the Outer Rim that helps introduce the new characters and ideas of “The High Republic.”
“The idea was to give all of those characters a crisis to respond to,” Soule said. “One of the ideas that we wanted to do was suggest that there were certain events throughout the entire High Republic story that we are telling that were being hit at different times by all of the storytellings.”
Soule also revealed that other large events like this will also take place throughout The High Republic just like how the Death Star encompassed other Star Wars stories during its time period.
The role of the Jedi being seen as peacekeepers
Another idea that will be explored through the High Republic is that Jedi aren’t war generals or commanders like we see in the prequel trilogy, but rather as the peacekeepers talked about throughout the franchise. Cavan Scott, author of the Marvel comic “Star Wars: The High Republic #1” said the Jedi are out and about with the people of the Republic and doing their job of keeping the peace exceptionally well rather than being hidden away at the Coruscant Temple.
“The galaxy has entered a period of prosperity and that’s changed the way the Jedi view themselves, the Force, and, in some cases, view the laws of the Jedi as well,” Scott said. “They’re not just hidden away in temples and there’s not just one temple on Coruscant. There are outpost temples on every major planet in the Republic.”
The introduction of Starlight Beacon
One of the Temples that will be introduced in the series is “Starlight Beacon,” a massive Republic space station that also doubles as Jedi Temple that is run by both the Republic and the Jedi as well.
A new batch of pirates will be some of the villains in the series
Ireland revealed one of the new sets of villains in the High Republic is a band of pirates known as “The Nihil,” an all-new type of villain in the Star Wars universe. She said there’s always this limit that heroes have of things they absolutely will not do while villains tend to have no limit at all.
“If you think that they might do something bad, you have to make that even worse and that’s the level at which the Nihil exists,” Ireland said. “We’ve compared them to like space vikings but they’re really worse than the vikings.”
Claudia Gray’s book Into the Dark will also introduce a new kind of villain called “The Drengir” which she said is a sentient mobile plant with poisons and thorns that are very hard to kill.
“They do not share any kind of common feeling or way of thinking with animals, including everybody in Star Wars that we would consider people,” she said. “There is just no compunction about the destruction they might cause.”
The High Republic as an entry way into Star Wars expanded media
The High Republic will be great media for everyone, not just hardcore Star Wars fans. With material being released for different age groups, Daniel Jose Older, author of the “Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures” series said even people who have never read anything related to Star Wars will be caught up in the series.
“You can also jump in and say these are amazing stories about magic and hope and blaster fights and all these other things that are so cool,” he said. “It’s a great jumping place but also a great continuation.”
The High Republic will be released in phases
Siglain said, “The High Republic” will be released new material in three phases with the first phase, “Light of the Jedi” happening throughout 2021 and into 2022.
The #StarWarsTheHighRepublic material will be releasing in three phases over the next few years.
Phase 1 will be releasing throughout 2021 and parts of 2022, per Lucasfilm's Michael Siglain pic.twitter.com/7NvBj6bQ2U
— Sara Edwards (@sedwards380) January 4, 2021
The #StarWarsTheHighRepublic material will be releasing in three phases over the next few years.
Phase 1 will be releasing throughout 2021 and parts of 2022, per Lucasfilm's Michael Siglain pic.twitter.com/7NvBj6bQ2U
— Sara Edwards (@sedwards380) January 4, 2021
There is no specific reading order
The mass release of books and comics may seem overwhelming at first, but Siglain said while he recommends reading all of the material, each story will have a complete telling. While there isn’t any specific order that the books and material should be read in, Siglain said he would recommend reading them as they are released throughout the next few years.
“There is no wrong way, but read them all and enjoy,” he said.
Star Wars: The High Republic is officially releasing tomorrow, Jan. 5, 2021, with Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule and A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland. Cavan Scott’s Star Wars: The High Republic #1 will be released on Jan. 6, 2021. Claudia Gray’s Into the Dark will be released on Feb. 2, 2021. Daniel Jose Older’s Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures #1 will be released Feb. 24, 2021. Samples and preorders can be accessed here.
Sara Edwards is a Star Wars Writer for Boardwalk Times
