Project Luminous Tells The Story Of Star Wars:  High Republic

Project Luminous has finally been revealed; and apparently the name itself was always meant to be a placeholder or codename for what is now officially being called Star Wars: The High Republic. Based on the name, I assume all of these stories will be taking place during Doug Benson’s tenure as Chancellor. In addition to that we will see the Jedi and the Republic itself at the height of their power but threatened by a group from outside the Republic’s borders called the Nihil. Now, don’t assume that just because they are called the Nihil, that you are going to be seeing some version of Darth Nihilus in this. It seems pretty clear that the Sith will not be the threat in this. I think they are just called Nihil because of the term nihilism and because they believe in nothing, Lebowski; nothing. Must be exhausting. We already knew this was going to be a publishing project and actually got the names of the authors involved last year. But now we have specific details on the works being released and when these stories take place (about 200 years before the PT).

The High Republic: Light of the Jedi (novel) by Charles Soule, August 25, 2020.
The High Republic: A Test of Courage (junior novel) by Justina Ireland, September 8, 2020.
The High Republic: Into the Dark (young adult novel) by Claudia Gray, October 13, 2020.
Star Wars: The High Republic (Marvel comic series) by Cavan Scott (no release date found).
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures (IDW comic series) by Daniel Jose Older (no release date found).

What you see listed above is not the entirety of The High Republic. It is being called Phase 1; the implication being that this could be a very long term and ongoing project. This really feels like more than just some loosely connected stories set during a different era; to me it seems like more of a highly coordinated and intricately connected multimedia effort akin to the Shadows of the Empire and The Force Unleashed projects. Stories not connected to any of the film trilogies have been something fans have been quite vocal about over the last 5 or 6 years. This seems to have all the right ingredients: we get the Jedi, but they are not fighting the Sith; we get an unexplored era in the franchise; new characters that can be developed in ways that our so called legacy characters cannot. Overall, I am very optimistic about this. Charles Soule and Claudia Gray have given us some of the best stories of the new canon. Cavan Scott has previously written a lot of the IDW comics, so this will be his first outing with Marvel. He also wrote the script for Dooku: Jedi Lost, a thoroughly enjoyable story. Daniel Jose Older wrote an okay story for From A Certain Point of View, but his novel Last Shot fell extremely flat for me; but he is doing the IDW comics, a line directed toward younger readers. So, if it’s good, good; if it’s not, it shouldn't be a major blow. Justina Ireland has previously written two Star Wars junior novels (Lando’s Luck and Spark of the Resistance). I haven’t read either, but they have respectable ratings on Amazon. The whole storyline is kicked into gear by some sort of disaster, from there it is anyone's guess how things will develop. Will we see a younger version of Yoda in this? Will the project extend beyond books/comics to include audio adventures, trading cards, games, action figures? Will the Jedi prevail against the Nihil; or will the High Republic go up in smoke?

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