Initially scheduled for August 2020, Star Wars: The High Republic, the Lucasfilm publishing event set roughly two hundred years before Episode I: The Phantom Menace, has been delayed until January 2021 as a result of issues caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Originally known as “Project Luminous,” The High Republic is comprised of several books and comics at multiple publishers. Set in the distant past of the known Star Wars universe, the timeline is intended to give the creative teams attached to the projects the opportunity to take new risks and explore the Galaxy in a way that has not previously been possible in the expanded canon. The adventures will explore the Jedi Order at the height of its powers and introduce a whole slew of new Force-sensitive characters.
Under the revised schedule, Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage, the middle grade novel by Justina Ireland and Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi, the adult novel by Charles Soule, will both both be published on January 5th, 2021. On February 2nd, 2021, Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark, a YA novel by Claudia Gray, will be published.
And the two comic series that accopany the prose books, Star Wars: The High Republic Adventure (which has a creative team that includes Daniel José Older) from IDW and Star Wars: The High Republic (with a creative team that includes Cavan Scott) from Marvel Comics will have revised release dates that will announced soon, according to the official post on StarWars.com, which includes a letter from Michael Siglain, Lucasfilm’s publishing creative director.
While the delay may be disappointed for those who have been following the event since it was nothing more than few whispers of “Project Luminous,” the unavoidable delays caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will give readers a chance to heed Master Yoda: “Patience you must have.”
