Project Luminous Revealed As ‘Star Wars: The High Republic’ But It Isn’t What You Think – Forbes

A new era in the Star Wars universe is about to be unveiled.

Not long ago I reported on rumors that Disney’s mysterious Project Luminous would be a new Star Wars movie or movies set in an era called the High Republic. The High Republic is a golden age of the Jedi Order, some 400 years before the Skywalker Saga takes place and several thousand years after the Old Republic era.

It turns out that those rumors were true—at least in part. Disney has announced that Project Luminous is indeed set in the High Republic era, it just isn’t a TV show or movies. Rather, Disney has announced a new multi-publisher book project with a bunch of new Star Wars novels set in the High Republic era. These new stories set in the High Republic will include novels for adults, YA novels and comic books.

Disney and Lucasfilm will be working with new publishers Abrams, becker&mayer!, DK, Insight Editions, Titan Publishing, and Viz Media as well as previous publishers Disney Lucasfilm Press, Marvel Comics, Del Rey, and IDW Publishing.

From the press release:

“Star Wars: The High Republic is set in an era when the Galactic Republic and the Jedi Order are at their height, serving and protecting the galaxy. This is a hopeful, optimistic time, when the Republic and the Jedi are noble and respected. This multi-year publishing program will be rolled out in phases, with Phase I being called “Light of the Jedi.” This period on the Star Wars timeline will not overlap any of the films or series currently planned for production, giving creators and partners space to tell Star Wars stories in a never-before-explored timeline.”

Authors in the new series will include Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott.

Titles announced so far are:

·     Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark by Claudia Gray  

·     Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage by Justina Ireland

·    Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures by Daniel José Older

·    Star Wars: The High Republic by Cavan Scott

·     Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi by Charles Soule  

Here are some book covers:

The first of these, The Light of the Jedi, is set to debut in August 2020 at the Anaheim Star Wars Celebration. It’s a “massive interconnected story that’s told across various formats by various publishers.”

It’s an interesting approach and one we haven’t really seen before outside of Old Republic stuff, which was only told through video games and books and never through TV shows or movies (sadly).

While Disney states that these stories have no cross-over with any film projects, it seems very possible that movies or video games could come later, especially if this era is popular with fans. Certainly getting away from the Skywalker era is crucial at this point in the Star Wars franchise, now that the nine film arc is wrapped up (with mixed success).

Starting with novels and comic books makes sense, though it’s certainly a bit of a risk. I really hope that this is followed with a Disney+ TV show or a new video game. We still have far too few Star Wars video games.

On that note, I like that Disney and Lucasfilm are working with so many different publishers here. This should be how they approach video games as well rather than placing all their eggs in EA’s basket. That hasn’t worked out so well.

Here’s some concept art:

Finally, here’s the High Republic announcement trailer:

What do you make of all this? Let me know on Twitter or Facebook.