Star Wars: Light of the Jedi Writer Promises Much More Than Just "Lightsaber Action"

Ever since Disney purchased Lucasfilm back in 2012, the Star Wars franchise has been met with diverse reactions, with some fans disappointed that so many of their new stories stick too close to familiar territory, but writer Charles Soule promises that his new book Star Wars: Light of the Jedi has a lot more for fans than just lightsaber conflicts. Of course, given how important a lightsaber is to those trained in Jedian arts, we can surely anticipate the classic combat methods, but with the narrative unfolding hundreds of years before the stories we've already seen, there will be a lot more to explore in the galaxy far, far away.

"One of the primary concepts of The High Republic initiative is the idea that there are certain key events that happen at the 'same time' across the storytelling," Soule recently shared with The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a lot like the way the destruction of the first Death Star in Star Wars: A New Hope has been seen from endless angles since it was first depicted in the first film."

He continued, "Those are all mapped out — there's a document with all of it laid down. The 'Great Disaster' that opens Light of the Jedi is one of those. I thought it would work because of the things you cited — the idea of having a lot of people involved in one event that operates on a galactic scale seemed very appealing. I could introduce a large cast in a very organic way, in various locations from the highest levels of galactic government to the 'Jedi on the street' as they respond to the disaster."

The new High Republic storytelling initiative, which had previously been teased as "Project Luminous," will be a new narrative endeavor for Lucasfilm, featuring a series of intertwined narratives across multiple mediums to elucidate upon a previously unexplored period of time. Various published stories have already hinted at this point in time for the franchise, though some theories claim that this publishing initiative, spanning comics and novels, could be setting the stage for the future of live-action stories.

"It's a chance to show heroism in many different ways," the author detailed. "Light of the Jedi has plenty of lightsaber action, but that's not the only way to solve problems, and you don't need the Force to be a good person. There's a sort of slogan that pops up in the book: 'We are all the Republic,' and the Great Disaster seemed like a perfect way to reflect that idea."

Star Wars: Light of the Jedi will hit shelves on January 5, 2021.

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