Star Wars: The High Republic

• 1. Introduction

  ›

  Star Wars: The High Republic began not with a film announcement but with a gathering at Skywalker Ranch. In September 2018, Lucasfilm invited five authors there: Claudia Gray, Justina Ireland, Daniel José Older, Cavan Scott, and Charles Soule. The studio's offer was a blank slate. These writers would shape a corner of the Star Wars galaxy that no screen story had ever reached.

  The project carried the internal codename Project Luminous. Lucasfilm teased its existence in April 2019, setting off intense fan speculation. The formal reveal came on the 24th of February 2020: a publisher-only multimedia initiative covering comics and novels. A trailer showed the Jedi at the height of their power, centuries before the familiar conflicts of the Skywalker Saga.

  Those Jedi were operating in a galaxy already threatened by a group called the Nihil. What made this golden age so golden? What catastrophe sets the entire saga in motion? And why did Lucasfilm choose to tell this story through a multi-publisher initiative spanning every format from manga to audio drama?

• 2. A Galaxy at Its Peak

  ›

  The High Republic era spans roughly 500 to 100 years before the Skywalker Saga. The Galactic Republic during this window was actively pushing into the Outer Rim, reaching territories it had never before claimed. The Jedi Order functioned as a distinct entity, separate from the Republic's government. That independence defined the era's character.

  Coruscant served as the Order's primary home, though Jedi temples spread to every major Republic planet across the galaxy. The Order was at its most diverse and transparent during this period. Jedi wore golden robes and wielded the Force to a far greater extent than later generations would.

  Starlight Beacon stood as the era's most visible symbol, a gathering point for the Jedi and a monument to the Republic's reach. Across multiple Phase I stories, it serves as sanctuary, meeting place, and eventually a target.

• 3. The Nihil and the Great Disaster

  ›

  The Great Disaster is the inciting event of the entire franchise. In Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi, a ship is destroyed while traveling through hyperspace. The debris it scatters threatens to destroy an entire star system. Jedi across the galaxy respond, using the Force at a scale that tests everything the Order has to offer.

  Marchion Ro leads the Nihil as its supreme commander, with three officers called Tempest Runners holding the second-highest positions of authority beneath him. Ro's origins and the Nihil's early history are traced in the Phase I comic series Eye of the Storm, written by Charles Soule with art by Guillermo Sanna. That series began publication on the 12th of January 2022.

  Lourna Dee, one of the three Tempest Runners introduced in Light of the Jedi, earned her own full-length audio drama. Tempest Runner, written by Cavan Scott and published on the 31st of August 2021, follows Dee's story from her own perspective. The project's creators have characterized the Nihil as "space Vikings," a marauding force built on disruption. Their ambitions expand steadily across all three phases of the project. The Nihil ultimately attempt to seal an entire portion of the galaxy off from the rest of it.

• 4. A Story Told Everywhere

  ›

  The first issue of the Marvel Comics series Star Wars: The High Republic was written by Cavan Scott with art by Ario Anindito. It drew more than 200,000 physical pre-orders from comic book shops before its release date. Marvel produced a second printing before the issue went on sale, then a third and fourth shortly after.

  IDW Comics published a parallel ongoing series featuring Yoda on sabbatical from the Jedi Council, mentoring a group of young Padawans, with art by Harvey Tolibao. Viz Media joined as a third comics publisher with an original manga by Justina Ireland and Shima Shinya, illustrated by Mizuki Sakakibara. The manga's first volume reached readers on the 7th of September 2021.

  Penguin Random House Audio produced audio dramas alongside the novels, extending major characters into a format suited to their stories. The High Republic Show, hosted by Krystina Arielle, ran bi-monthly on the official Star Wars YouTube channel as a behind-the-scenes companion series. Its first episode premiered on the 27th of January 2021.

  Tencent partnered with Lucasfilm to produce a Chinese-language e-book written under the pen name "His Majesty the King." The story follows a young Jedi named Sean patrolling the Outer Rim near the end of the High Republic era. Lucasfilm has stated it has no plans for an English translation.

  Young Jedi Adventures ran on Disney+ and Disney Junior from 2023 to 2025, the first full-length animated Star Wars series aimed at young audiences. Leslye Headland's The Acolyte debuted on Disney+ in 2024. Headland described its setting as "a pocket of the universe and a pocket of the timeline that we don't know much about." Lucasfilm confirmed The Acolyte takes place in the late High Republic era. In the studio's own framing, the series explores "emerging dark side powers."

• 5. Three Phases, Three Eras

  ›

  Phase II of the project, named Quest of the Jedi, takes place 150 years before Phase I. That jump backward in time introduces a different central threat: the Path of the Open Hand. The Path is a secretive religious group on the planet Dalna, controlled by a charismatic figure known only as the Mother. The group believes the Jedi's manipulation of the Force disrupts the universe's balance.

  Zoraida Córdova's novel Convergence, published on the 22nd of November 2022, anchors Phase II's adult storyline. Set on the warring twin planets of Eiram and E'ronoh, it follows the Republic's attempt to broker peace. A marriage of state is proposed: Princess Xiri A'lbaran of E'ronoh would wed Prince Phan-tu Zenn of Eiram. Unseen forces work to prevent the peace from holding.

  George Mann authored all of Phase II's short fiction under the title "Tales of Enlightenment." The stories are set in and around a bar on Jedha called Enlightenment, and ran in Star Wars Insider from September 2022. Mann was the sole author of Phase II's short fiction, unlike Phase I's rotating group of contributors.

  Phase III, named Trials of the Jedi, began with Mann's novel The Eye of Darkness on the 14th of November 2023. It resumes the timeline of Phase I, following the aftermath of the Nihil's most decisive moves. By this point the Nihil have established Nihil space, a fiefdom sealed by a transit and communication barrier called the Stormwall. Jedi masters Porter Engle and Avar Kriss are trapped on the wrong side of it. Charles Soule's Trials of the Jedi, the phase's capstone adult novel, arrived on the 17th of June 2025.

• 6. Readers and Viewers

  ›

  Light of the Jedi reached number one on The New York Times hardcover fiction bestseller list in its first week of release. It held a spot on that list for four weeks. A Test of Courage, released the same day, debuted at number two on the Times list for children's middle-grade hardcover. Into the Dark reached number one on the young adult hardcover list. The first two issues of Marvel's High Republic comic series were the best-selling digital comics on Comixology during their release week.

  At Star Wars Celebration 2022, the High Republic panel filled its hall beyond what the authors had anticipated. Charles Soule described the moment to Star Wars Insider: "Something like 4,000 people had come to see us talk about and celebrate The High Republic." A cosplay gathering followed shortly after. Soule described it as attended by "dozens and dozens of people who had made elaborate, beautiful High Republic costumes." He reflected: "It felt like we had done something that connected with people."

  Star Wars Eclipse, announced in December 2021 by developer Quantic Dream, extended the project into video games and remains in development. An interactive experience had already arrived: Temple of Darkness, made by ILMxLab as an expansion for Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge. It follows Jedi Padawan Ady Sun'Zee, the sole survivor of an encounter with an evil relic on Batuu. She works alongside Yoda to confront it. Shadows of Starlight, written by Charles Soule with art by Ibraim Roberson, used Phase III to detail the Jedi response to the attack on Starlight Beacon. That four-issue miniseries completed a thread the first phase had left open.