The ‘Skywalker Saga’ has come to an end, and an exciting new direction is being charted for a galaxy far, far away. In fact, the world building for Star Wars is expanding in every direction across all platforms. One of those directions is Star Wars: The High Republic–which for years has been developed under the mysterious name, Project Luminous.
Now, a glimpse into the inner workings of this project can be seen in Disney’s new trailer for Star Wars: The High Republic.
“For over a thousand generations, the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice.” The words uttered by Sir Alec Guinness more than 40 years go in A New Hope still send chills down the spines of thousands of die-hard fans. The High Republic is the era Guinness’ Obi Wan Kenobi refers to; a time period set 200 years before the ‘Skywalker Saga’.
“It’s a line we’ve been hearing since 1977, and we thought, ‘You know, what does that look like?” said Michael Siglain, Director at LucasFilm Publishing.
Though Star Wars: The High Republic does not focus on live-action offerings (not yet at least), a cinematic pre-production approach has been applied to the publishing project. Executives at the launch said the books and comics will lead to on-screen properties.
“We’re finding ourselves at a very exciting moment with the Skywalker Saga coming to an end,” said James Waugh, VP of Franchise Content & Strategy at LucasFilm. “We’re at a place of: what’s next for Star Wars? One of the things we’ve always done is to be able to use our franchise platforms to explore the creative potential of the Star Wars galaxy. And so, what if publishing was more of an incubation place? And bring in great talent and just let their imaginations run free.”
Concept artists, round-the-table brainstorming and production meetings between some of sci-fi fiction’s top writing talent were convened at the Project Luminous Authors’ Summit 2018 at Skywalker Ranch to help world-build the High Republic.
Authors like Justina Ireland (Star Wars: Lando’s Luck), Claudia Gray (Star Wars: Master And Apprentice), Daniel Jose Older (Star Wars: The Last Shot), Cavan Scott (Dooku: Jedi Lost), Charles Soule (Star Wars: Darth Vader) were given a blank slate to freely develop the High Republic. However, this creative freedom does contradict previous reports.
Regardless, these authors have already added a unique perspective to the Star Wars universe, which will no doubt continue with the High Republic.
The two most intriguing elements are the descriptions of the Jedi and the new villains they’ll face. The Jedi of the High Republic have been described as either Jedi of the Round Table or as Texas Ranger-type figures patrolling the borders of the Republic. The new cast of villains is collectively known as The Nihil. Could they be related to Darth Nilihus, who was a character in Knights of the Old Republic? Whoever they are, concept art gives them an iconic look with suitably evil-looking head-gear resembling gas masks. They’re described as “Space Vikings” who live by the motto: “You can’t take it with you. But we can take it from you.”
Photo: LucasFilm
Not to completely spoil the video but towards the end they describe how the story of the High Republic starts. Tune in to find out more, and look at all the behind-the-scenes footage of the writers’ table discussions, and the cool concept art. For those wondering if Star Wars has a future after the Skywalker Saga, the answer seems to be so far, so good. We’ll get a better idea when the first wave of novels and comics release in August.