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coronavirus delay Star Wars: The High Republic at Disney and Lucasfilm

Star Wars: The High Republic Initiative Delayed to 2021

This article is over 4 years old and may contain outdated information

It’s not just Star Wars film and TV production that’s being hit by COVID-19 and its associated effects. Disney’s stab at launching a connected Star Wars publishing effort covering children’s books, novels, and comics has now been delayed as well. The launch of Star Wars: The High Republic, as the series of books and comics is called, was set to kick off at the end of August with the publication of Charles Souleā€™s Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi novel, but it has now been pushed to 2021 due to “general marketplace delays” (read: probably coronavirus).

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In a statement, Lucasfilm Publishing Creative Director Michael Siglain noted that current events meant that the publishing effort couldn’t be launched in the way it needs to be and that delaying the project will make sure the “launch is as grand and epic as it deserves to be.” He also hinted at some of the characters and stories we’ll be able to dive into once The High Republic does launch, including ā€œThe Hero of Hetzal,ā€ ā€œthe twins,ā€ the ā€œBlade of Bardotta,ā€ the Starros and San Tekka clans, and the Storms.

The series will now launch on Jan. 5, 2021 with both Light of the Jedi and Justina Irelandā€™s middle-grade novel Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage publishing on that date. Claudia Grayā€™s young adult novel Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark has moved to a new release date of Feb. 2, 2021. Both the upcoming Marvel and IDW comic lines for The High RepublicĀ have also been delayed, but no new release dates have been announced yet.

The series is set 200 years before the prequel films take place, when the Jedi and Republic were at their strongest and seen as true peacekeepers throughout the universe. The Jedi of this era are described as a mix between Texas Rangers and knights of the round table. With no canon, movies, or TV shows to write around, the books and comics from The High Republic give creators a lot of freedom to hopefully take the franchise in interesting directions, which sounds pretty good since the films and shows keep leaning heavily into nostalgia.


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Matthew Razak
Matthew Razak is a News Writer and film aficionado at Escapist. He has been writing for Escapist for nearly five years and has nearly 20 years of experience reviewing and talking about movies, TV shows, and video games for both print and online outlets. He has a degree in Film from Vassar College and a degree in gaming from growing up in the '80s and '90s. He runs the website Flixist.com and has written for The Washington Post, Destructoid, MTV, and more. He will gladly talk your ear off about horror, Marvel, Stallone, James Bond movies, Doctor Who, Zelda, and Star Trek.