While Lucasfilm’s SDCC 2022 panel was light on announcements, it had a lot to say about upcoming releases and The High Republic Phase 2! On the non-THR side, authors shared tidbits on upcoming stories like The Princess and the Scoundrel, Hyperspace Stories by Dark Horse, and non-fiction content like 100 Objects. Phase 2 High Republic reveals include some new covers, new Jedi, and more hype for its October start. Head below for more!
The High Republic Phase Two
To kick off The High Republic Phase II section, the opening crawl for the new part of the era was revealed! (image below via Aubree on Twitter)
The panel could’ve ended there and I would’ve been happy, but thankfully it didn’t, instead showing off some great new covers and interior artwork as well!
Feast your eyes on that final cover by Grant Griffin for George Mann’s The High Republic – The Battle of Jedha!! The two Jedi on its cover are Creighton Sun and Aida Forte, and it looks like Sun has some type of armor on…did he come ready for a battle or is this just part of his outfit? We’ll hear all about it February 2023! Mann then spoke about his Quest for the Hidden City, which will follow the Pathfinder teams investigating a planet where previous teams went missing. If you have library connections, you might even get to read a very early copy of it already! But Mann wasn’t done, he even got to show off some interiors from his limited series comic, The High Republic Adventures – The Nameless Terror, which of course via the title alone promises the Nameless, the creepy, Force-sucking creatures giving the Jedi in Phase I so much trouble aka turning them into dust! Check out the interiors below:
Fresh off its first solicit, Claudia Gray’s The High Republic Adventures – Quest of the Jedi had its leading Jedi revealed: Barnabus Vim, who’s mystical like Qui-Gon Jinn, and considering how damn well she wrote Qui-Gon in Master & Apprentice, I’m very excited to see what she does with her own version of the character. The first issue is out October 19.
We’ve known Daniel José Older would be writing The High Republic Adventures for Dark Horse as a graphic novel, but it’s now releasing as individual issues instead! It stars a young Sav Malagán, a fan-favorite from his IDW THRA run, which means Maz Kanata as well, per the hints in the original run. Look at that fun cover above!
Cavan Scott also got to hype up his The High Republic – Phase II run with Ario Anindito, showing off a cover for the second issue (above) featuring Vildar Mac and Matty Cathley, the Master & Apprentice pair that stars in the series (Matty being more street-smart than Keeve) and a new character, Tey Sirrek. He also talked on how it’ll focus on a bunch of strange Force religions, considering it takes place on Jedha, and even name dropped the sorcerers of Tund, a group in Legends first introduced in Lando Calrissian Adventures. The first issue is out Oct 5, a day after the opening novel!
General Content
Covering both current and upcoming releases we already knew about, the panel kicked off with Adam Christopher’s Shadow of the Sith! I found it interesting he said he had creative freedom with Rey’s parents, but their blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearance in the film certainly didn’t inspire a deep backstory. What he presents in the book is intriguing and full of promise to be expanded, while Miramir and Dathan quickly become characters you want to root for, despite knowing their fates. Check out the novel now, it’s great!
Kiersten White, who’s writing next week’s Padawan (we’ll have our review up very soon), talked about reading Master & Apprentice to help understand the character more, while the panel revealed Siri Tachi of Legends shows up in the story (already mentioned in canon, but she’s has a scene or two here!).
Beth Revis was on hand to chat August’s The Princess and the Scoundrel, revealing some fun stuff like Han’s bachelor party happens on Endor, the book explores parts of the Halcyon (aka the Star Wars hotel) you can’t in real life (even though she hasn’t been), and that stories like Shattered Empire are directly referenced. A full standee of Leia and Han at SDCC shows their entire wedding outfits, while they shared the artwork at the panel. We should have a review up on the Manor Tuesday (when the embargo lifts) from Chris, and I’ll have one later (I just finished reading it this week!).
Dark Horse’s upcoming Hyperspace Stories was explored with Cecil Castellucci, one of the three writers for the maxi-series. She reiterated the 12-issues will have an overarching story and dropped some looks at interior pages for the first and second issues! I’m liking what I see from the art and I’m intrigued to see how it all connects.
With the scares at Vader’s Castle all dried up, Cavan Scott talks about his next horror celebration with Tales from the Rancor Pit graphic novel. We now know some of the stories: story 1 is a Clone Wars-era ghost story with a Separatist General haunted by droids he’s sacrificed! I LOVE the sound of this one. | Ty Yorrick from The High Republic (in a miniseries and novel Scott wrote), will be the focus of story 2. Monster hunting should be a scary profession! | Story three is one about Han and Chewie dealing with Wampas that Scott’s been planning since the first Vader’s Castle pitch! Interiors were shown off as well.
The non-fiction books Timelines and 100 Objects also had their time in the spotlight, with Kristin Baver talking about how comprehensive Timelines will be, while keeping space open for new stories; 100 Objects also showed off a spread on Count Dooku’s bust!
They also showed off covers for Marvel’s November comics, fantastic art throughout, but I can’t wait to get that fancy Lando one in hi-res:
New comic cover reveals! pic.twitter.com/U17qjVW7Qs
— Ellie (@HarellieQuinn) July 22, 2022
Lastly, they announced a Life Day pop-up book. Life Day is going to be a merchandising machine going forward, which I’m both not surprised about and worried for my wallet.
Big thanks to Ellie aka HarellieQuinn on Twitter for the live-tweeting! And the official site for the hi-res images.
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.