The Lucasfilm Publishing Panel at NYCC 2019 was ripe with announcements, reveals, and intriguing hints of what’s to come. Marvel’s Star Wars comics head post-The Empire Strikes Back, the next Alphabet Squadron novel gets a release date, The Clone Wars gets an anthology book, some very scant details about Project Luminous, and much more so head below to learn what all happened!
Let’s get this out of the way: sparse details again about Project Luminous, but we learned it’ll span multiple publishers, Del Rey, Disney Lucasfilm Press, IDW, and Marvel, while we’ll get a lot more details in January 2020. Considering the tagline, which we learned back at Celebration Chicago is, “The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things…. Until…Project Luminous, 2020,” and we have to wait until after The Rise of Skywalker comes out to learn more, I imagine it’ll tie into whatever happens in the Skywalker Saga’s final film. For now, it’s all speculation however, but I look forward to seeing what comes from such an ambitious project, and if successful and enjoyable, I wonder if it’ll be something we can look forward to happening again. And with such a great list of creatives, Claudia Gray, Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, and Cavan Scott, there’s plenty of reasons to believe Luminous will live up to all this hype and speculation.
COMICS
I didn’t quite realize I had been holding my breath regarding Doctor Aphra’s future in comics, as December brings both an end to her series and also contains her “fate” in Empire Ascendant, but the Publishing Panel brought me the biggest sigh of relief: the wondrous news there will be a lot more Doctor Aphra to come! They didn’t have anymore specifics beyond that, but as a giant fan of the character, and even knowing her large following probably meant there would be more content coming, hearing them officially say there’s more to come really started off my weekend! Make sure to get all caught up on her series here with our reviews!
With the first phase of Marvel’s comics coming to a close in December, there’s been a lot of questions of what will be next, and NYCC was the place we started to finally learn the plan. Since 2015, most of the comics have followed along the same timeline, between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, and in December they’ll finally move on to…between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. It’s a ripe story telling point in the original trilogy, and the sequel trilogy has a similar time span between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, though out of all the places they could’ve gone, it feels like the less thrilling option (post-RotJ, post-TROS), but with so much out there planned we don’t know, it might have been the best and only option. The jump to the new era begins with the mainline Star Wars series relaunching, restarting at #1 after it hits #75 in December, and with it comes one helluva a good new writer: Charles Soule! From his now classic Lando miniseries, Obi-Wan & Anakin, Poe Dameron, and the epic Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith, I feel like Soule is one of the best writers in Star Wars right now so I’m really eager to see what he’ll get to do charting Luke, Leia, and even Lando’s journeys from the fallout of TESB to their rousing success in RotJ. He shares a lot of the questions which will fuel his time on the series in an interview with the official site, and I’m most excited his work with Lando, especially the tease about him having to go rescue Lobot, letting the writer who developed their friendship into a true tragedy continue to explore it (though we know from the Aftermath novels he hasn’t quite saved his friend yet from the cybernetic implants post-RotJ); I’m also hoping we’ll learn about Lando’s little maneuver in the Battle of Taanab. Soule will be joined by artist Jesus Saiz, and if the preview panels dealing with the end of Luke and Vader’s battle on Cloud City are anything to go by, Saiz will also be an excellent addition to the series. Seeing some of the preview panels also focus on the Luke’s hand/saber plummeting from Cloud City, are we going to start to learn the tale of how it landing in Maz Kanata’s basement, as a side-story appearing throughout Soule’s run, kind of like Jason Aaron’s Journals of Obi-Wan Kenobi? I doubt it, but that would be really fun. My last curiosity is a bet: the over/under on any elements of Shadows of the Empire making their way back into canon thanks to Soule’s run. Regardless, the relaunch comes to stores in January 2020, so expect a little more details when the January solicits drop later in October.
The other title officially announced for Marvel’s 2020 comics was…Volume 3…of Darth Vader. That’s right, another Darth Vader series (there’s been 4 Vader-centric ones since 2015), though I’m trying to find some solace in assuming if the next phase of Marvel’s comics finally do go post-RotJ, there shouldn’t be another Vader series (key word being shouldn’t). I will say writer Greg Pak is a promising creative for a third volume, he had some stellar issues in his Age of Rebellion and his “Rebels and Rogues” arc to close out the current era of the Star Wars has been exceptional, so there’s a good pedigree here. Focusing it on Vader’s reactions to being scorned by his son Luke is somewhat interesting, but I don’t quite know how I feel about an entire series about Vader in this time, especially considering he’ll be appearing throughout Soule’s Star Wars run as well, but this might be the more interesting way to focus on the fallout of TESB for him. Having 5 series about Vader now is rather glaring (especially after the debacle that was Dark Visions) considering all the other potential avenues for comics: new characters, other established characters who haven’t gotten even a miniseries or one-shot issue in the Age of Star Wars maxiseries, a female-centric series beyond only Aphra, or even an alien-led series; anything but Vader at this point would be widely appreciated.
Lastly, they promised some bounty hunters were on their to the comics and I have to wonder if this will end up including any one/tying into The Mandalorian in any way, shape, or form. At the very least, we’ll be seeing the Kendoh crew from the Galaxy’s Edge miniseries again in October’s Allegiance miniseries! Regardless, I’m curious to learn more as bounty hunters are a nice change of pace so this, a promise of a lot more Aphra, and Soule on Star Wars all make for a potentially exciting 2020 and beyond for comics!
NOVELS
The second book of the Alphabet Squadron Trilogy received a title, Shadow Fall, and a tentative release month, June 2020. The first book was rather excellent, with the complex characters being a real highlight, so I’m excited to see more of them, though I’m still wary about the threat of Shadow Wing beyond book one. UPDATE: Review is here!
In a nice change of pace for the sequel trilogy novelizations, Rae Carson (Most Wanted) will write The Rise of Skywalker, finally giving the job to a female author, while Michal Kogge will pen the middle grade version, both due out March 3, 2020.
Also announced was Dark Legends, a follow-up to one of my favorite Galaxy’s Edge park tie-ins, Myths and Legends, which sees the return of writer George Mann and illustrator Grant Griffin as they focus on some of the darker stories told throughout the galaxy far, far away. I really enjoyed the first one, as it was a neat glimpse into living within the galaxy we haven’t quite seen before, and I’m curious if it will build off any of the tales previously mentioned. For now, we know at the very least one of the tales will concern the Grand Inquisitor from Rebels!
Not only will The Clone Wars return one last time on Disney+ in February, August 25, 2020 sees the release of a middle grade novel, The Clone Wars Anthology! Executive Editor Jennifer Heddle revealed on Twitter that the book is a series of, “Short story retellings of different TCW episodes and arcs focusing in on one main character from each,” so it’s not new content, but an interesting new way to experience the show, as getting into the heads of some of show’s characters in key moments should be quite intriguing, middle grade or not! Authors are: Lou Anders, Tom Angleberger, Preeti Chhibber, Zoraida Córdova, Sarah Beth Durst, Jason Fry, Yoon Ha Lee, Rebecca Roanhorse, Anne Ursu, and Greg Van Eekhout. The temporary cover shown at the panel includes Sarah Beth Durst, but the official site’s image (as of this publishing, seen to the right) does not, but she is definitely part of the book as she shared her excitement on Twitter. Also on Twitter, Roanhorse revealed she is writing Darth Maul and that Córdova is writing Asajj Ventress!
And lastly, Timothy Zahn will continue to write Thrawn in The Thrawn Ascendancy Trilogy, a prequel charting Thrawn’s rise through the Chiss Ascendancy, with the first book launching May 2020. After Thrawn: Treason, I was happy to be done with Thrawn via Zahn, content to wait and see what Dave Filoni had in store for the character and Ezra Bridger, so I’m personally lukewarm on this announcement. One of my bigger complaints with Treason, and Zahn’s first canon Thrawn Trilogy, was how little we did get to see of the Chiss in general (or specifically, with their Force-related navigation) so this looks make up for it, handily. I also felt like Rebels ultimately had the stronger Thrawn portrayal, as he could actually be allowed to make mistakes, and I believe the blue one might falter more often among his kind, so there’s some potential to battle that complaint as well. I’m going to hold off any more judgment until we learn/see more, but for now consider me cautious, but for those who thoroughly enjoyed the recent Trilogy, I’m sure this prequel trilogy is top of your list!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him on Twitter @BrushYourTeeth. You can follow the website @MynockManor.