Charles Soule, Light of the Jedi author and one of The High Republic’s architects, talked about the novel, the process behind the era, and more with The Hollywood Reporter, while the official site revealed one of the era’s unique, Excalibur-esque lightsaber blades. (Update: THR has begun and our reviews are rolling in!)
In his latest interview, Soule describes Light of the Jedi as “…a disaster movie; it’s a mystery; it’s a race-against-time-team-on-a-mission story,” which captures the momentum found in his two previous novels, The Oracle Year and Anyone. Those engrossing reads show Soule’s great writing isn’t limited to comics and his statement on how LotJ comes together, “It’s elastic — the story can stretch and pull as needed, and then at the end, it all snaps together for what I hope is one hell of a punch,” is also very apt for his other books, so the opening salvo of the era will likely be a very memorable one thanks to the pace and character work alone. He also teased other details for the novel and era, like the usage of a “We are all the Republic” slogan and some comedy/weirdness thanks to an Ensign Peeples. He also hinted at the Nihil, the era’s marauder like villains we’ve not really met yet, have several tricks up their sleeves, including unique abilities, and, “They have a deep and detailed history that will be explored throughout the initiative — the Nihil and what they get up to is one of the coolest parts of the whole thing.” Hopefully this steady drip of THR content prior to the launch will soon begin to shed light on the nefarious Nihil. Light of the Jedi isn’t out until January 5, but you can read the opening chapter already!
The image above is from the upcoming Lightsaber Collection book, showcasing the unique and flashy lightsaber of Stellan Gios, a Jedi described as optimistic and the voice of reason, who has a long history and is partnered often with Avar Kriss, the era’s most notable member of the Order. In an attempt to differentiate the era’s Jedi, beyond their robes, the design team looked for inspiration from a legendary sword from our world’s own stories: Excalibur. The crossguard is very interesting and I’m really digging the design, as I’d think it would make for an awesome toy/replica to own, and from the interview on the site it seems a lot of time went into the design to make it seem practical and cool, and not just there for cool’s sake. This isn’t the first High Republic era lightsaber we’ve seen, disregarding the concept art initially shown with the THR’s reveal, as we got small glimpses at two in the preview for Marvel’s The High Republic on-going comic and Luke Skywalker just recently claimed one after conquering a familiar foe in a long forgotten Temple.
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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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