Star Wars: The High Republic Writer Teases Upcoming Origin Story for Major Franchise Villains

The new Star Wars: The High Republic storytelling initiative takes place hundreds of years before the Star Wars tales that we know and love. Most everything about the galaxy, including the characters residing in it, are very different. That said, there are some small glimpses of things that seem to set up the world of Star Wars everyone is more familiar with. Take the Hutts as an example. The main villains of the High Republic come in the form of the Nihil and the Drengir, but there are more than a few references about the Hutt crime syndicate that we were introduced to in the original Star Wars.

Jabba the Hutt may not be pulling the strings to the events of the High Republic, but the comics and novels set in the era are doing a great job of establishing the power of the Hutts, helping to set up what they will become later. Star Wars: The High Republic writer Cavan Scott stopped by our ComicBook Nation podcast and talked about the incorporation of Hutts into his stories.

“I think that this gives us a chance to look at the Hutts as an organization, as a group, in the same way the High Republic gives us a chance to look at what the Jedi, when Obi Wan talks about the Jedi and he’s talking about that period of when they were at their height which obviously isn’t the pre-courses as we see find out when we see the prequels, you know I think we all expected that’s what the prequels were,” Scott told us. “And then through the story, we realized that it was rose-tinted glasses from before that. With the Hutts as well, we know that with the warlords, there is a history there when they weren’t just a bunch of gangsters, they had power then they’ve got their own area of space. They’ve got Hutt Space. And so then there must have been conflicts when we were discussing the idea of Republic pushing out into the frontier that yes, they would come up against the Nihil, but they would also come up against people like the Hutts who have had a free reign in that past space.”

Scott went on to explain that the Hutts were much more active as an organized crime syndicate, working in the Outer Rim before the Republic really had a hold on the territory.

“It gives us the chance to think back of a period of time when the Hutts were perhaps a bit more active in every sense of the word, then we see them later on where perhaps they do have a bit more power because there isn’t an Empire keeping them in place or isn’t a Republic, even in the same way we’ve seen the Republic,” the writer continued. “You know, this is a Republic when it’s starting to push out when it hasn’t been established. And in some ways when it hasn’t given up areas of the outer rim to the Hutts, you know which it seems to be what we have in the prequels and the original trilogy. A few of us were very eager to put the Hutts into it but to move them away from just what we see from Jabba, you know. I moved them to be an active part of the galaxy and what that would mean. And going back to the old saying ‘the enemy of my enemy is my friend’ and seeing how that would work, and seeing if there would be a moment when the Republic and the Hutts would have to join forces.”

Have you been enjoying the High Republic so far? Let us know in the comments!