Star Wars: The High Republic will show the Jedi “in the most heroic light possible”

Starting this August, Star Wars fans the world over will get to take in a whole new suite of stories, set somewhere the franchise has never gone before: the High Republic, the golden age when “Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic” for over 1,000 generations.

Behind this effort are a group of creatives who have long worked in the Star Wars space, writing comics and novels and stories. They include Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain, Charles Soule (Marvel’s Darth Vader, Star Wars, and Poe Dameron), Cavan Scott (Dooku: Jedi Lost, Tales from Vader’s Castle), Claudia Gray (Master & Apprentice), Justina Ireland (Lando’s Luck), and Daniel José Older (Last Shot).

And indeed, The High Republic will encompass multiple kinds of media, from comics to middle-grade books to adult novels, and all of them connected. The five people behind this push — they call themselves Jawas Incorporated on their Slack channel — talked about it all to StarWars.com at George Lucas’ Skywalker Ranch, laying out their plans for a new adventure in that galaxy far, far away…

“This was an idea that I always wanted to do with Star Wars publishing, in that I wanted to tell a massive story, told across multiple formats over multiple years, for every type of fan,” said Siglain. “So if you’re only reading a Del Rey novel or you’re only reading a Marvel comic, you’re getting one piece of the story. But if you’re a core fan and you’re reading a Del Rey novel and a YA novel and a Marvel comic, you’re getting a much bigger part of the story. You’re getting the whole picture. It’s not as if it’s one story aged down or up depending upon format, there’s not one ‘A’ story. Every one of these stories is the ‘A’ story, and then they combine together into a massive, massive story.

Basically, it sounds like Jawa Incorporated wants to do for Star Wars publications what companies like Marvel and DC do with their comics, or what Marvel Studios has done with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a comparison the team members themselves make. Only in those cases, all the stories are told in the same medium — movies for the MCU, comics for DC and Marvel. Here, there will be more cross-pollination. “[W]hat’s really refreshing is that nothing quite like this has ever been done before,” said Older. “There’s a lot of analogues, but this is on another scope, I think, from anything thing we’ve seen even from Star Wars or anything else. That’s really cool.”

Indeed, this does sound like a step up from much of anything that’s been tried before, which is exciting and kind of scary. Will the workload be too much for people to keep up with?

Photo: Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi – Book Cover.. Image Courtesy Disney Publishing Worldwide

But that’ll be then. First, how did the team go about the monumental task of figuring out what stories to tell? “We broke stories last time, and then we were all given responsibility to take one of those and develop it,” said Scott. “They’ve all fed into this story that we’re creating now. The nice part has been, we had our last retreat here where we came up with all the different stories, and now we’re pulling bits from each and creating a joint story. And that’s the nice thing about it. So much time as writers, I mean, we get in comics and you work with artists. Different scripts and [you work]  with actors and the like, but this is different when you’ve got five creative minds. And you’ve got the safety net as well of going, ‘I can’t get from A to B,’ and then someone else will say, ‘Why don’t we do this?’ That suggestion sparks something else between you.”

This all sounds like a very difficult balancing act, but the group sounds nothing if not excited about the challenge. If all goes according to plan, Said Ireland:

"[I]t’s a big story, it’s a very big story, but you’re going to have a comic that’s going to feel different than the middle grade [book], you’re going to have an adult novel that’s going to feel a little different than a young adult novel. So if there’s something you really passionately want to do within this framework, there’s space for that. Which isn’t necessarily always the way storytelling can feel when there’s a group dynamic. Sometimes it feels like you have to put aside what you want to do for the good of the group, and that’s not the case here."

And if the group needs clarification on some point or other, they can always consult the Story Group, a body within Lucasfilm there to make sure everything stays within certain boundaries. We wouldn’t want anything contradicting something else, would we?

Photo: Star Wars: The High Republic – Variant Cover.. Image Courtesy Disney Publishing Worldwide

That said, the team will have some wide latitude to forge their own path. That’s a big part of the draw of writing in this period: not many storytellers have come by here. “We’re going 200 years before The Phantom Menace,” said Siglain. “We’re seeing the Jedi in the most heroic light possible and really focusing in on what they’re doing. There is a theme of exploration and expansion to the galaxy that’s involved, so looking at it that way, all of these authors are doing the same thing. They’re exploring the same way and seeing, ‘What can we push, what can we do, how can we make this as big and as epic as possible but still make it 100 percent authentically Star Wars?’ That’s the creative challenge and it’s a good one.”

Once again, it’ll be a balancing act, and one that will come with its own set of challenges. “I would be lying if I didn’t say it is intimidating because you create a new bad guy,” Soule said. “It’s immediately measured up against Palpatine, Vader, Kylo, Snoke. So that forces you to deliver at your A game because you’re not competing against, but you’re being measured against the greatest Star Wars creators of the last 40 years, from George Lucas to Tim Zahn to everybody else. It’s an interesting process but it is exciting. It forces us to bring that all-star initiative power.”

But if they’re successful, the team won’t just be playing in someone else’s sandbox; they’ll be creating their own. “We’re setting up stuff here in this part of the galaxy that people in the future will build on and take the story forward,” Scott said. “And that’s what Star Wars has always been. It’s a story that started that had a massive past, but it’s moving forward. I think that’s what we’re doing.”

Photo: Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Variant Cover.. Image Courtesy Disney Publishing Worldwide

That said, the stories will, of course, have connections to the stuff people already know. “That’s one of things, if you watch, especially the original trilogy, there’s so much that’s never spelled out, like why things are the way they are. But implied,” said Ireland. “Now we can tell you why some those things are the way they are. We can take some of those breadcrumbs and make it a full loaf.”

Gray picked that comment up and ran with it. “We have connections within all the elements of this story, and we’re able to build connections to the other parts and other stories that really will tie together a lot in the universe.”

The first High Republic work, a novel called Light of the Jedi, will be out this August. From there, we’ll see if it’s the next big thing in the Star Wars universe. And who knows? The Star Wars movies may be taking a break for now, but if The High Republic is successful enough, perhaps we’ll see some of the stories on the screen eventually.

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Watch Game of Thrones for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels