The Future of Star Wars

With the Skywalker saga officially concluded in The Rise of Skywalker, we are on the verge of entering a new era of Star Wars storytelling. There are many possible directions the franchise could go in, and rumors and speculations are abundant. However, I think some possibilities are more likely than others.

One of the biggest things I think we’ll see Star Wars explore next is the era of the Old Republic. Popularized by content such as the Knights of the Old Republic video game series from the old Expanded Universe, now known as Star Wars Legends, fans have been clamoring for Lucasfilm to bring the era back into canon with new stories for some time now. Set thousands of years before any of the events in the current films, in a time when the ruthless dark side warriors known as the Sith still existed in numbers to rival the Jedi Order, this is an era ripe with potential for stories the likes of which we have never seen in the current canon. What were the Jedi and Sith like in their early days? How did they originate? What started the processes that got both factions to where we see them in the current films? What did the galaxy itself look like during this ancient time when legions of warriors comparable to Darth Vader wreaked havoc on it? These are all questions that Old Republic stories could answer.

Unfortunately, it may be some time before we see stories from this era, as Lucasfilm has already announced stories from another time period set before the Skywalker saga. Several books and comics will take place in the brand-new High Republic era, which is set a mere two hundred years before The Phantom Menace compared to the thousands of years of the Old Republic. During this time, the Sith have already adopted the “Rule of Two,” which constricts their numbers to one master and one apprentice, just like we see in the first six films. In contrast, the Jedi are said to be in a golden age and have not yet lost sight of their original ideals as they have by the time of the Clone Wars. This sounds like a fun era to explore as well. However, this project has been confirmed to be limited to books and comics and will not overlap any of the films or series currently planned. So, it may not get in the way of Old Republic stories after all.

One more direction I think we’ll see Star Wars move toward is not a time period, but a location: the fringes of the known galaxy and even what lies beyond it. In fact, a trilogy of novels exploring the Unknown Regions has already been announced. Written by longstanding Star Wars author Timothy Zahn, the trilogy will focus on characters from a civilization called the Chiss Ascendancy, which exists far from the borders of the known galaxy. The Unknown Regions have been explored before in Star Wars Legends, but this will be the first time in the new canon. And there’s much that new stories could delve into even aside from the Chiss Ascendancy, so I wouldn’t be surprised if Zahn’s trilogy won’t be the only look we get at this region.

In short, the future of Star Wars storytelling has the potential to go in many exciting new directions. With books and comics featuring the High Republic and Unknown Regions already confirmed, I think it’s only a matter of time before we start to see similar stories in films and Disney Plus series. And I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty excited for that.

#StarWars #TheOldRepublic #TheHighRepublic