With Phase II nearing its end, much of Celebration Europe 2023’s High Republic panel focused on teasing what was ahead for Phase III: Trials of the Jedi, as we got a ton of title reveals and a general timeline for its length, with Phase III ending in 2025! Pair all the reveals with Alyssa Wong (Doctor Aphra) joining the team and the big news a fan favorite character appears in The Acolyte (!!!), it means The High Republic keeps on winning. Head below for all the new details!
The host for the panel was the always amazing Krystina Arielle, while the panelists include Michael Siglain (Lucasfilm Publishing Creative Director), James Waugh (VP Franchise Content & Strategy), Charles Soule, Claudia Gray, Lydia Kang, Cavan Scott, George Mann (loved the Pride shirt!), Alyssa Wong (joined in later), and Daniel José Older. The panel was not live streamed, but I hope like last year’s Phase II panel, they release a video of it afterwards, otherwise a big thanks to live tweeters like Star Wars Books & Comics and Friends of the Force for sharing all the news!
{UPDATE: The panel was included at the very end of the livestream, though it doesn’t include the Acolyte parts. Hopefully they’ll still end up releasing the full thing later, but for now, I’ve linked to the starting point (6:39:16) so you can check most it out for yourself! Otherwise, I’ve updated this article with a few extra details gleaned from listening in myself.
UPDATE 2: We have more content from the various publishing panels on Saturday, which included interior previews for The High Republic Adventures – Phase II (baby Sav!), a first look cover for The High Republic Adventures – Phase III, interiors for Jedi Brave in Every Way (baby Burry!) among other new reveals!}
I know y’all want all the Phase III goodies and The Acolyte surprise reveal, but we’ve got to kick this article off with what remaining Phase II and other projects they hyped up! They had to mention Young Jedi Adventures, which a few episodes of will be shown at the convention on the same day, and it seems like all the luminous authors are Nubs fans too! How could you not be! Soule teased The Broken Blade, the next Porter Engle comic announced at the end of The Blade, without revealing much, but seemed to hint Barash Silvain will return! Mann said it couldn’t be a High Republic story if everyone made it out alive, referencing his The Nameless Terror miniseries, so watch out if you have any favorites! Scott joked about the subtle title Path of Vengeance and said it’ll dive into the Mother’s story finally.
And Older plus Siglain talked up The Edge of Balance: Precedent, saying Wookiee Jedi Master Arkoff’s adventure will take us from the Battle of Dalna (as seen in Cataclysm) all the way to Phase I start, while the Wookie’s old master is an old woman who could destroy you.
Speaking of the Battle of Dalna, they showed off some spooky Nameless starring art “The Night of Sorrow,” as seen above, which is the name the Battle earns in-universe, where the Mother, aka Elicia Zeveron, and Jedi Knight Oliviah Zeveron can be seen in the Nameless’ eyes!! It won’t be long before their familial relationship is explored!
TALES OF LIGHT AND LIFE (in order)
1. Axel and the Mother
2. Marda (cannot say timeline)
3. Silandra, Rooper several years after Phase 2. Rooper is going through Jedi Trials.
4. Ram and Zeen friendship in middle of Phase 1. pic.twitter.com/62qzDHYq8o
— Friends of the Force (@FriendsOfForce) April 8, 2023
Alyssa Wong joining the team linked up with more news on the upcoming anthology, Tales of Light and Life. Alyssa’s work on Doctor Aphra has been nothing short of exceptional (I named them amongst the Top Three Writers for Star Wars’ 2022 Comics, among other accolades) and I can’t wait to see what they bring to the table. They join Tales of Light and Life‘s author list of stories with a Barnes and Noble exclusive tale (mixed feelings about doing stuff like this), but it won’t be the only place they’ll be contributing, as we found out later they’ll co-write a Phase III story! As for Tales of Light and Life, we got names of the stories and who they will star, which paired with the information on WHEN these stories take place from previous panels/announcements, can lead to some speculation and hopes:
- “The Queen’s Bloom” by Zoraida Córdova. It’ll star Axel and the Mother and takes place during Phase II
- “A Closed Fist Has No Claws” by Tessa Gratton. Marda Ro will take center stage, and while at the panel they couldn’t share the timeline, they already told us Tessa’s story takes place post-Phase II, so maybe we’ll get to see how the Ro family lives on…
- “Shield of the Jedi” by George Mann. Silandra Sho, my favorite character of Phase II will feature, alongside her Padawan, Rooper Nitani, which is exactly what I was hoping!! It’s set post Phase II as Rooper will be going through her Jedi Trials.
- “The Lonely Traveler is Home” by Daniel José Older. During the middle of Phase I, Older’s tale will focus on Ram Jomaram’s friendship with Zeen Mrala!
- “After the Fall” by Claudia Gray. The crew of the Vessel star in this tale set right after the fall of Starlight Beacon, which we already got an excerpt from!
- “The Force Provides” by Justina Ireland. Vernestra Rwoh, who will feature in Phase III a ton and even….beyond (see below), stars in this one from Ireland, and will see her dealing with the aftermath of Starlight’s fall.
- “All Jedi Walk Their Own Path” by Charles Soule. This one is a two-parter! It’ll start with Bell Zettifar and Loden Greatstorm, so you can imagine this is set Phase I or earlier, which I cannot wait to see these two together again. The second half will star Bell looking for Buryaga, which fits with the info we knew this one original was set VERY close to Phase III.
- “Light in the Darkness” by Cavan Scott. Two words: KEEVE TRENNIS! And she’s a Jedi Master!!! And she’s flying a ship called Gios!!! Scott’s is also close to Phase III’s start, so we’ll get a little preview of how she’s doing beforehand.
- “The Call of Coruscant” by Lydia Kang. Starring two new characters, both Jedi and were named at the panel but I wouldn’t even begin to guess how to spell them, Kang’s tale is set post-Phase II but not yet Phase I. She promises we might see them down the line… Very intrigued by this one!
- “Rogue Element” by Alyssa Wong. The inspiration for Alys “Crash” Ongwa in Midnight Horizon, Alyssa will be writing…Crash! It picks up after the events of said book and sees Crash dealing with a masked vigilante and involves a new Jedi. This sounds amazing and I’m really, really sad it’s Barnes & Noble exclusive.
How about that poster for Phase III (Ember lives!!!)?! That’s right, it’s time for Trails of the Jedi talk! Phase III picks up one year after Starlight falls, a time jump I’m not too surprised about and sort of glad we get. On top of that reveal, we got the full slate of adult, young adult, and middle grade novels, plus the return of the comics by Scott (The High Republic – Phase III from Marvel, starring Jedi Master Keeve Trennis and may find her butting heads with a masked Tempest Runner…Lourna!?!) and Older (The High Republic Adventures – Phase III from Dark Horse, which first art for will be revealed at the Dark Horse panel on Sunday), announced, who’s writing the Insider shorts and what they center on, while there’s a nebulous, still unannounced title kicking off Phase III in October (not November, as previously reported), plus it was revealed Phase III will come to an end in 2025 (!!). Let’s jump into it!
I wish they had more images like these in the past. Here’s the adult novels, starting with George Mann’s The Eye of Darkness on November 14, 2023, which will feature Elzar Mann, Avar Kriss, and the “Triumph of Marchion,” which sounds like a fun first adult novel, as these three are the big “main” characters. Gratton’s Temptation of the Force will be in Summer 2024, while Charles Soule, who opened the whole initiative, will close it in Spring 2025 with Phase III’s final novel, Trails of the Jedi!
For the Young Adult novels, Justina Ireland and Tessa Gratton join forces again in Defy the Storm, which will feature Vernestra Rwoh (not the last time you’ll see that name) and her Padawan, Imri Cantaros, out March 12, 2024. Next is Mann’s Tears of the Nameless (what a title!!), in Fall 2024, followed by Spring 2025’s Into the Light by Claudia Gray (nice symmetry with her first YA novel, Into the Dark)!
And lastly, the Middle Grade novels! They kick off with Older and Wong teaming up for Escape from Valo, out January 30, 2024. Next is Córdova’s Beware the Nameless in Summer 2024, and last is Ireland’s A Valiant Vow in Spring 2025!
Another image I wish they had for previous Phases: a timeline for the first wave! So you can see how much more spread out this Phase will be, and I’ll be curious if that means the comics will have more issues, like closer to 25 or so each, which would be awesome as they have always felt like they could’ve used more space for their stories. And you can see the unannounced Phase III, Wave I starter in October there, followed by Lydia Kang’s first entry in the Chronicles from the Occlusion Zone in Star Wars Insider, which center around the zone Marchion Ro set up in the final pages of Eye of the Storm #2. They promised Phase III is just the start of the era…
Next, fresh off a heartwarming appearance on the Celebration Live stage, where she revealed her deep, deep love of the franchise and understanding of this era of books, Leslye Headland appeared to talk about The Acolyte. Fans at the panel were treated to the trailer shown off during the Lucasfilm Studio Showcase (the blurry video of which has since gone down), where there are tons of cool martial art action and Jedi to enjoy, but one thing was able to be show to all fans around the world: VERNESTRA RWOH WILL BE IN THE ACOLYTE! Played by Headland’s wife, Rebecca Henderson, somehow Vern, who would be 100+, will appear in the show! How?! Well, it might just have to do with the very special Path Mari San Tekka gave to Vern in Out of the Shadows that I’ve been dying to see resolved, though that’s just my best guess at the moment. It really doesn’t matter because…VERN WILL BE IN THE ACOLYTE. Never would’ve guessed this in a million years and I cannot wait to find out more when the show launches in 2024!
Rebecca Henderson as Vernestra Rwoh in The Acolyte!!!!!!!!!!!!! pic.twitter.com/8Vau3V2wmJ
— Laura Kelly (@ShutUp_Laura) April 8, 2023
Just like last year, there was tons of cosplay…just check out the wide array here who showed up for the meet up after the panel! Like wow!!! Can’t imagine how many more there will be by 2025…
High Republic fans are the best. #StarWarsCelebration pic.twitter.com/afGHQoPl3m
— Matt Martin (@missingwords) April 8, 2023
Final thought: #BlackoutStarWarsEclipse, as it WAS NOT mentioned at the panel. Let’s keep it up!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website on Twitter @MynockManor and Instagram @mynockmanor.