In an unfortunate but completely understandable move, considering the unprecedented situation facing the world, the launch of The High Republic publishing initiative has been delayed until January 2021. This news seemed inevitable after last week’s updated Star Wars comic solicitations for August did not include a single issue of The High Republic’s comic series, and delaying the whole initiative since the comics couldn’t come out in time shows how important every medium is in telling this new and exciting story. As sad as this development might be, a note included with the official site’s blog post about the delay, written by creative director of Lucasfilm Publishing Michael Siglain, offered some tantalizing teases of what’s to come. We dive into those teases below! (Update: THR has begun and our reviews are rolling in!)
The updated release dates are as follows: Light of the Jedi, the adult novel from Charles Soule, and A Test of Courage, the middle grade novel from Justina Ireland, will now release January 5, 2021. February 2, 2021 will see the release of Into the Dark, by Claudia Gray. There hadn’t been any official release dates for the Marvel series from Cavan Scott, The High Repulic, nor IDW’s from Daniel José Older, The High Republic Adventures, but they were largely expected to start in August alongside the novels. There’s no new concrete date for them, but I imagine they’ll be out January/February 2021 as well, the solicitations for which drop three months prior.
Now onto the letter!
San Tekka! Starros! Hero of Bardotta! Not all of these teases have current connections in canon, but some do and all are intriguing nonetheless.
Let’s start with the most recognizable one: San Tekka! The one person we know with that last name is Lor San Tekka, who opened The Force Awakens and met his fate at the hands of Kylo Ren/Ben Solo, a kid he’d known for many years already. We even get to see them on a mission together, when Ben was younger, to an old Jedi outpost from the time of the High Republic era, in The Rise of Kylo Ren. He even made a few appearances towards the end of the Poe Dameron comic. Fun fact? Both comics were written by High Republic writer Charles Soule! As for Lor himself, he’s a member of the Church of the Force, a group whom believe in the ideals of the Jedi Order and hoping to reestablish the Order, and he went around collecting Jedi lore to prevent the Empire and other nefarious forces destroying them. Could we see that the San Tekka’s have been fateful believers in the Force all this time? Or were aligned against them all these years ago? Or even a family of Force-users? It’s not a name I expected to see, but I’m intrigued with the possibilities.
And then there’s Starros, a name which definitely took me by complete surprise but I’m the most excited about. We only know one Starros at the moment and it’s the excellent character Sana Starros, who broke into canon claiming to be Han Solo’s wife (spoiler: she wasn’t) and became something far more, leading the charge on introducing more LGBTQ+ characters to canon with her tumultuous relationship with Doctor Aphra. We only recently featured Sana in our character concierge series, but there hasn’t been too much from the character recently. Learning about her ancestors is an unbelievable but welcomed development for a character who started in the comics. UPDATE: Trust Florian of Jedi Bibliothek to spot one of the Starros’ we’ll meet: Avon Starros, an 11 year old inventor, is mentioned in A Test of Courage’s synopsis, and she can even be seen on the cover!
The final name, the Storms, has no known connection to the current canon, or Legends even, so as much as I want to see these familiar names, I’m eager to meet a new clan as well.
Beyond clan names, Siglain also includes some specific references. The one with a current connection is the “Blade of Bardotta,” a planet seen in both The Clone Wars and Dooku: Jedi Lost, the latter written by High Republic scribe Cavan Scott. There seems to be some reference books which have fleshed out some of the planet’s ancient history (as seen on Wookieepedia), which includes the interesting tidbit about the Bardottans no longer sending their children to the Jedi. Is this “Blade” one of the final children given to the Order? A nickname for one of the era’s villains, the Nihil? A non-Force using warrior from the planet?
As for “the twins,” could this be teasing the era having a potential Dyad, much like Ben Solo and Rey Skywalker turned out to be in the sequel trilogy? It’d be neat to see how other Dyads worked, especially ones who know what they are considering Ben and Rey’s ended just as it was truly getting started.
And then “Hero of Hetzal” is one I can only guess about now, with no real potential connection as far as I’m aware, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this turns out to be Avar Kriss, the Jedi’s best of the best, or potentially Stellan Gios, who she’s been known to work side-by-side with; in fact, I could see both of them being the Heroes, but Avar not wanting the name and attention, instead letting Stellan take it all instead.
I appreciate them throwing in these teases, as they know we’re all very anxious for this brand new storyline to start, and giving fans these threads to theorize over show they are just as anxious and excited for us to start enjoying The High Republic. This continues to be an unfortunate development, but I’m glad they are trying to do this right and this move shows just how committed they are to the new initiative. We’ll update the Manor as more High Republic news comes!
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.
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