Star Wars' New Republic Film May Use Characters From Comics, Games, and Books

One of Star Wars' most exciting upcoming projects is an event film that is set in the New Republic era, the time of The Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka TV series. Given the time period, the premise, and the fact that Dave Filoni is at the helm, fans fully expect to see major characters from Star Wars TV live-action TV shows and animation in the film – not to mention, some big movie characters that could make a cameo.

However, in a new interview, some of the head figures of Star Wars actually tease the possibility that this New Republic event film could pull some fan-favorite Star Wars characters from the franchise's comic books, video games, and novels – going as far back as the days of Star Wars' Expanded Universe! 

As Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy revealed to EW, when it comes to Filoni's New Republic movie, there are "a lot of sources he's drawing from to see where we're going." 

The Mandalorian Universe producer Jon Favreau played a bit coy to Dagobah Dispatch, but did tease indirectly how the larger multimedia reach of Star Wars influenced him: 

"When I was younger, we didn't have movies, but there were comic books, there were novels, things that are encompassed in the [expanded universe] or Legends," Favreau said. "Clearly, there are decisions that have to be made to fit it all together..."

For Favreau and Filoni, the end determiner is whether or not the character they bring together actually fit together: 

 "For us, I think one thing we're in agreement about is that the characters — as special as they are — the story has to drive what characters are." Favreau said, later adding, "As we are getting deeper and deeper into this, you start to have to really map things out and figure out what that story is, and then have those characters fulfill what their growth cycle is and what their mythic hero's journey is. Those things have to fit together well. Otherwise, it won't feel like Star Wars. That's always been George's base. He's a student of Joseph Campbell. How does it fit into the narrative that has the hero's journey? And so as we have more and more characters line up, you have to figure out how those characters are arcing and if it feels ultimately like a Star Wars story."

As fans already know, Filoni and Favreau have been slowly but surely importing characters from Star Wars animated series and comic books into the live-action TV series – and vice versa (Cad Bane, Fennec Shand, Black Krrsantan, The Spectres, Ahsoka Tano, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Bo-Katan Kryze). Hearing characters from all those various lanes of media are possibly coming together is thrilling enough – the notion that even more fan favorites not seen yet could also show up is just icing on the cake of fan anticipation. 

Star Wars New Republic Movie is in development.