Star Wars Reveals Details About a New Jedi Master of The High Republic

The upcoming publishing initiative of Star Wars: The High Republic will dial things back for the galaxy far, far away, telling a story set a few hundred years prior to the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and the beginning of the Skywalker Saga. In a new blogpost on StarWars.com, Lucasfilm has revealed some new details about the line, but focusing primarily on one of the lightsabers that fans will get to see. This version of the weapon takes an idea we saw in Star Wars: The Force Awakens and gives it some improvements, but in revealing new info on the design Lucasfilm also offered details on the man that will wield it.

One section of the post reads: “During the time of the High Republic, Jedi Master Stellan Gios ascended through the ranks of the Jedi Order as the Padawan of Jedi Master Rana Kant. As a young Padawan learner, he developed a strong connection with fellow Jedi Avar Kriss and Elzar Mann, though they were apprenticed to different masters. Gios is regularly the voice of reason amongst the three, focused on upholding the Jedi tradition.”

It continues, “Gios’ lightsaber is an elegant weapon with a crossguard and a longer hilt that allows him to easily wield it with two hands like a broadsword. The crossguard’s quillons point forward when the saber is not in use, and the weapon rests in a holster that leaves the saber easily accessible. the hilt features striking black, gold, and silver details. When the saber ignites, the crossguard blades push the quillions outward, forming caps to the blades and creating a secondary guard.”

Lest this announcement worry you that the new line of stories will be focused squarely on lightsaber action, writer Charles Soule says that’s not the case.

“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.”

Star Wars: Light of the Jedi, written by Soule, will kick things off with the story and is currently set for release on January 5, 2021. Following its release there will be even more prose novels and comic books that continue to tell the story of this era of Star Wars.