How the Star Wars sequel trilogy connects to The High Republic

For the time being, the Skywalker Saga is over. Star Wars will probably tell new stories from now on, but there will still be links back to the old stuff.

For over 40 years, the Star Wars movies have explored what Disney has retroactively dubbed the Skywalker Saga, the nine-film story of the rise and fall (and rise and fall again) of the Galactic Empire, with figures like Anakin Skywalker, Luke Skywalker, Ben Solo and more at its center.

Naturally, there are more Star Wars movies coming, with the next one slated to arrive in time for Christmas 2023. We don’t know what that movie is going to be about, but we know Taika Waititi is probably writing and directing it, and if we had to guess, we’d say it’s going to move away from the Skywalker Saga. It feels like we’re at the end of that.

But what will the new movie be about? Well, even though Disney is staying mum about that, they’re readying a different Star Wars series for release before then: The High Republic, a collection of books and comics that will be set some 200 years before Anakin was a gleam in his father’s eye wait his dad was the Force that doesn’t make sense born, back when the Galactic Republic was at its height and the Jedi were an unambiguous force for good in the galaxy.

Does this mean that the new Star Wars movie will be set during this period? Not necessarily, but it would makes sense for Disney to get us comfortable with this new setting before setting a movie there, right? Also, as sussed out by Digital Spy, there is a connection between a character who appeared in 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens and a prominent family active during the time of the High Republic. Let’s investigate.

Remember towards the beginning of The Force Awakens, when Poe Dameron receives a fragment of a map from an elder gentleman played by legendary actor Max Von Sydow? And then Kylo Ren comes along and kills the old dude?

What everyone remembers about that scene is that Kylo Ren spots a blaster shot in midair. And they should, because it was awesome. But we may have wanted to pay closer attention to the old man. His name was Lor San Tekka.

Why is that important? Because apparently the San Tekka Family was a big deal back during the days of the High Republic, as High Republic writer Charles Soule told StarWars.com:

"Once just a family of hard-scrabble hyperspace prospectors seeking valuable routes in the outer reaches of the galaxy, the San Tekka clan has become a dynasty, at the forefront of technologies and techniques that let Chancellor Lina Soh’s great galactic Republic continue to expand safely to new areas.Overseen by scions Marlon and Vellis San Tekka, the clan operates in close conjunction with the Republic, and becomes crucial to its response to the Great Disaster. But the San Tekkas have a secret… their rise did not come without cost."

The Great Disaster, by the way, was some incident that caused all starships throughout the galaxy to be abruptly launched out of hyperspace. I’m sure we’ll learn more about it in due time. The point here is that the San Tekkas were big movers and shakers back in the day. How did a San Tekka ancestor become a simple Rebel sympathizer in possession of a fragment of part of a map that leads to Luke Skywalker’s whereabouts? Perhaps we’ll find out.

Or maybe it’s just a fun little Easter egg. This falls well short of The High Republic revealing that it’s actually all about Anakin Skywalker’s great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandparents or something, but at the least, it’s not completely divorced from some elements of The Skywalker Saga.

And again, where The High Republic goes, we wouldn’t be surprised if the new movies followed.

The books in The High Republic series start coming out early next year.

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