High Republic REVEALED - Everything Star Wars Fans Need To Know

In a press conference last night at Walt Disney Studios, the curtain was finally pulled back on the mysterious Project Luminous that was teased last April at Star Wars Celebration. Led by writers Charles Soule, Claudia Gray, Cavan Scott, Justina Ireland, and Daniel José Older (all Star Wars veterans by now), the project's real name is The High Republic. It's set 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace, and it focuses on an all new cast of characters facing off against an all new threat.

The High Republic era is a sort of golden age for the Star Wars universe. It's when the Republic was at its height, and people lived in luxury. It's long before any Palpatines or Skywalkers were running around ruining things. Essentially, it's an era of Star Wars close enough to what we know to be familiar, but untainted by any of the characters or families we've seen before.

While there is great potential for the High Republic era to be explored in films, TV, or games, the first wave of content based around the era is all novels and comics. It begins on August 25th with Light of the Jedi, a novel written by Charles Soule. Soule has written amazing Star Wars stories in the future such as Lando, Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith, The Rise of Kylo Ren, and the currently ongoing Star Wars comic.

Details are sparse on the book for now, but the cover (pictured above) features a Wookiee Jedi - which is very exciting.

On September 8th, we will get another story set in the High Republic with Justina Ireland's A Test of Courage, a book aimed at middle-grade readers. On October 13th, yet another novel releases, this time written by acclaimed Star Wars writer Claudia Gray. The book is called Into The Dark, and it's aimed at a Young Adult demographic. There will also be ongoing comic series - a standard one from Marvel and a kid-focused one from IDW - but they have not been given release dates yet. The Marvel series is written by Cavan Scott and the IDW series is written by Daniel José Older.

Hints alluding to the High Republic era were dropped in the build up to yesterday's announcement. The Star Wars Adventures comic referenced the Nihil raiders - the villains of the era - in 2017, while the era itself was mentioned again in the Dooku: Jedi Lost audio drama. Recently the frequency of references has increased in the Star Wars and Kylo Ren comics. More details about the High Republic are likely to be revealed in these series before the actual books and comics begin to release later this year.

Lucasfilm have also released a video detailing the creative process of the writers involved in the project, and it shows a lot of interesting concept art. Check it out below!

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Are you excited for the High Republic era? Let us know in the comments below!