It wouldn’t be a major convention without Lucasfilm Publishing crashing the party to share what they have cooking for Star Wars. Across all of their publishers, Lucasfilm came guns ablaze with new reveals from Phase III of the High Republic initiative, John Jackson Miller’s The Living Force, and more.
Headlining today’s books and comics dump is none other than Marvel. While the ongoing Dark Droids crossover has been taking over the back half of 2023, the scourge didn’t stop the team from sharing what’s coming next year.
Among those sadly is a casualty. Ethan Sacks’ Bounty Hunters will be wrapping up after January’s issue #42. That means there are three issues left of the series, with only the final issue reserved for the fallout of Dark Droids.
After the conclusion of Bounty Hunters, Sacks moves on to write Star Wars: Jango Fett. StarWars.com has revealed it is a miniseries and will be coming next March. Cover art by Lenil Francis Lu was shown.
Also coming next year is the return of both Thrawn and Mace Windu. Jody Houser and the creator himself, Timothy Zahn, return to adapt Zahn’s Thrawn: Alliances for the comic format. Meanwhile, Marc Bernadin will helm a new Mace Windu miniseries, aptly titled Star Wars: Mace Windu, to help celebrate the 25th anniversary of The Phantom Menace. Both of these particular series will launch in January.
Moving on to John Jackson Miller’s Star Wars: The Living Force. Coming next year, the novel will take place only a single year before The Phantom Menace and is being described as a road trip for all 12 members of the Jedi Council. It was revealed that all 12 will have their own points of view explored, signaling it’s bound to be a very complex book.
One tidbit brought up during the panel is that of some unlikely candidates for scene stealers. The panel teased “one of the funniest things they’ve seen in Star Wars” between Jedi Masters Ki-Adi Mundi and Yarael Poof. The novel will hit bookshelves on April 9, 2024.
Turning our attention to the High Republic, Phase III is basically underway already with the recent release of Marvel’s Shadows of Starlight #1 and its unofficial companion piece, Jedi Brave in Every Way. November will really see the fun kick off with the first issue of Marvel’s The High Republic and George Mann’s The Eye of Darkness, the first adult novel of the phase. While no new information was revealed on those titles, StarWars.com will have updates very soon.
New pages for December 6th’s The High Republic: Character Encyclopedia were showcased though. You can find a couple of them below and the rest on StarWars.com.
Covers for upcoming comic issues were also shown, including Shadows of Starlight #4. The miniseries helps bridge the year-long gap between the fall of Starlight Beacon and the beginning of Phase III. Dark Horse’s The High Republic Adventures #3 was also highlighted, featuring Kantam Sy taking on a new villain called Tartak Vil. Check them all out below:
The last thing High Republic-related, as a part of Insight Edition’s “almost final” cover reveal for The High Republic: The Lightsaber Collection, is the announcement that a Stellan Gios FX lightsaber will be making its way to shopDisney and Disney Parks this fall. Only 5,000 copies will be made to start. Expect more details in the future. Thank you to Friends of the Force for being in the room and snagging a great look at the lightsaber in action:
OH MY GOD
Stellan Gios FX lightsaber is coming to Shop Disney, limited to 5000 and will include some other exclusives. pic.twitter.com/ubFssm4gNW
— Friends of the Force Pod @ NYCC (@FriendsOfForce) October 15, 2023
Winding things down is the announcement of a new line of Dark Horse graphic novels. Falling under the Hyperspace Stories branding, George Mann will be tackling Qui-Gon Jinn while Cecil Castelucci writes Obi-Wan Kenobi. Check out both covers below.
Hyperspace Stories: Qui-Gon Jinn will be released next spring before Obi-Wan drops in the summer.
The last reveal we’ll cover is a new visual archive book from Insight Editions, coming next March from Kelly Knox, Clayton Sandell, and S.T. Bende. After turning 40 years old in 2023, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi: A Visual Archive will give you another chance to experience the movie in a whole new way.
For more information on this and everything unveiled during today’s Lucasfilm Publishing panel, head on over to StarWars.com and keep it here at Star Wars News Net for more coverage of all things books and comics.
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he’s not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.