Everything We Know About Star Wars: Fate of the Old Republic’s Story (& What We Can Figure Out)

December 13, 2025, 8:00am

A new Star Wars game, Fate of the Old Republic, has officially been announced. Created by Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic director and ex-BioWare veteran Casey Hudson, it’s only in the earliest stages of development right now. Designed for consoles and PC, it may be years away from releasing, but we have seen a trailer for Fate of the Old Republic that features a mysterious Jedi.

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Naturally, the trailer is only really “mood music” at the moment. The aesthetics are designed to evoke memories of the classic KotOR games, with the ship this Jedi travels in looking similar to the classic Ebon Hawk (even if it clearly isn’t the same ship). This has led some to suggest the Jedi is Bastila Shan from KotOR, a canon story set in the same time period. But is this really Bastila Shan, and what do we know of the Old Republic era in canon?

Star Wars’ Old Republic Era Explained

The Old Republic was first mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi himself in the very first Star Wars movie, and he presented it as some sort of golden age of the Jedi. “For over a thousand generations the Jedi Knights were the guardians of peace and justice in the Old Republic,” Obi-Wan Kenobi taught Luke. The Old Republic timeline became a little more confused after the prequels, but Star Wars canon has gradually ironed this out, and we now know that this term covers a vast time period.

The Old Republic Era runs from shortly after the founding of the Republic, some 25,000 years before the Skywalker saga, to the re-establishment of the “modern” Republic a thousand years ago. The last four thousand years of the Old Republic were marked by increasing conflict after a Jedi schism led to the formation of the Sith. These first Sith were Jedi who swore themselves to the dark side and who were exiled, finding their way to the Sith homeworld of Moraband (also known as Korriban). The Sith bided their time, emerging roughly 3,000 years ago and establishing rival empires across the galaxy. They came close to extinguishing the Republic, but fell to infighting.

The Old Republic Is Typically Associated With One Particular Sith (& Jedi)

The original KotOR games focus on a character named Revan, a hero of the Mandalorian Wars who discovered a growing Sith threat and fell to the dark side, becoming one of their greatest warriors after an encounter with the Sith Emperor. Revan’s story foreshadows Anakin Skywalker’s, because it became a tale of redemption – but redemption of a different kind, after his memories were erased by the Jedi. Although Revan ultimately learned the truth of his past, he found redemption due to the love of his fellow Jedi Bastila Shan, and the two married.

KotOR has been rendered non-canon (or “Legends”) now, but Darth Revan has been mentioned in canon a handful of times. The most notable reference was in the Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Visual Dictionary, which revealed that Palpatine’s Sith Eternal legions were named after Sith Lords of the past, including Revan. Other KotOR characters have also been name-dropped, but Bastila is yet to be restored to canon. Still, given Revan’s importance to KotOR, it’s easy to see why many gamers hoped the Jedi in the Fate of the Old Republic video will be Bastila.

The “Fate of the Old Republic” Sounds a Lot More Final

That said, the title of this game – Fate of the Old Republic – sounds a lot more final. It’s possible this is referring to the very end of the Old Republic Era, a time when the light of the Jedi was almost extinguished by the Sith. The Jedi only had one advantage; the fact they fight alongside one another, while the dark side is competitive. In the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, the Sith were weakened by infighting and one of their own, Darth Bane, plotted their destruction. With the Sith finally defeated, the Republic was reformed into the structure we saw in the prequels.

Something similar to this is known to have happened in canon, but with subtle differences. There’s some evidence Darth Bane was much more significant in canon than he was in Legends, taking control of the Sith Empire and reforming it around his infamous “Rule of Two” before he was defeated by the Jedi. If this is the case, then the “Fate of the Old Republic” was presumably decided when Darth Bane was finally defeated, his reign brought to an end, allowing the Republic to be restored. It’s entirely possible this will be the game’s plot, not anything tied to Bastila Shan.

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