While many fans are focused on the slew of new Star Wars Disney+ series announced during the Disney Investor Day Event , Lucasfilm has long been hard at work on content focused on The High Republic .
This era of Star Wars is set to debut in 2021 through novels and comics and will also include a younger Jedi Master Yoda in The High Republic Adventures comics. Now this particular period in Star Wars lore has long intrigued fans; but just ahead of the new year, we're already learning some surprises about this highly-anticipated point in time from that galaxy far, far away.
NEWS
The Lucasfilm Story Group just released a canon, Chinese-exclusive original novel titled Star Wars: The Silver Oath, which is actually set in the era of the High Republic .
In a promo video for the novel , James Waugh, Lucasfilm's Vice President of Franchise Content and Strategy, reveals that "it takes place towards the end of our exciting new era called the High Republic. It's about fifty years from The Phantom Menace so it's one of our first High Republic stories ." While the first official introduction to this new era of Star Wars history and lore is noteworthy; this timeline announcement is big news.
Lucasfilm had previously confirmed that the High Republic is set 200 years before The Phantom Menace . The fact Star Wars: The Silver Oath is set a mere fifty years from The Phantom Menace indicates that the High Republic timeline is much longer than fans previously believed.
WHAT THIS MEANS
A longer High Republic timeline certainly opens up more opportunities for storytelling, but it also indicates that the Prequel Trilogy has surprisingly close ties to the end of this unexplored period of Star Wars History. Familiar characters, places, and events, apart from Yoda, are now more likely to appear in High Republic stories that take place around the time of Star Wars: The Silver Oath .
This timeline reveal also indicates that the problems within the Jedi Order as seen in the Prequel Trilogy were most likely rooted within this new cast of characters and their timeline. After all, fifty years is a shorter length of time than the entire Skywalker Saga.
Overall, it seems the High Republic is both longer, and possibly more relevant, than fans once thought; and its stories occurring towards the end of this new era could add an equally new perspective to the Prequel Trilogy.
