Lucasfilm
had some big announcements at San Diego Comic Con this weekend and a lot of the news was centered around the “Prequel Era” of Star Wars. When Disney
first purchased Lucasfilm it seemed like they were “phasing out” the Prequel
Era and focusing more on the Classic Trilogy and the Sequel Films. Some fans were disappointed when the long
running “Clone Wars” television show was cancelled and replaced with “Rebels”
which takes place in the years before “A New Hope”. The novels and comics
published by Disney also seemed to largely ignore the prequel-era. Some fans were worried (and
others hoped) that Disney would not focus on the canonicity of Lucas’ prequel
films moving forward. It seems, however, that Disney will pivot completely as we move into
2019.
The CloneWars Season 7
Many
fans were devastated when the popular “Clone Wars” series was given the axe
in 2014. Though a Sixth Season aired on Netflix, many of the plot lines were
left open-ended including the story of Ahsoka Tano. Now Disney tells us that
they will produce a 12-episode Season 7 of “Clone Wars”, which will launch with
their new Streaming Service sometime in 2019. In addition to this new Season of “Clone Wars” a live action series set in the years following the “Battle
of Endor” is also in the works. This streaming service will hopefully make Star
Wars TV shows available to a wider audience since many fans have not been exposed
to “Rebels”, “Clone Wars”, “The
Freemaker Adventures” and some of the other animated Star Wars series.
Prequel Novels
Very
few of the Disney Star Wars novels have focused on the prequel-era and now Disney
seems to be looking to fill in this gap. The novel “Queen’s Shadow” by E.K.
Johnston will focus on Padme Amidala, a character that we haven’t heard much
from since “Revenge of the Sith”. The book will release on March of 2019 and explore Padme’s life in the 10 years between “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack
of the Clones”. E.K. Johnston’s previous entries into Star Wars media include the
2016 novel “Ahsoka” and the short story “By Whatever Sun”, the latter of which
was co-authored by Ashley Ekstein.
We
also have news that Claudia Grey is penning a Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan book called “Master
and Apprentice” that will hit stores next February. This novel will be the
first Pre-Phantom Menace Novel under the new Disney-canon. Grey previously
wrote three popular Star Wars novels: “Lost Stars”, “Bloodline”, and “Leia:
Princess of Alderaan”.
Prequel Comics
A
new comic series by Jody Houser, titled “Age of the Republic” is in the works. Jody
Houser will be writing the first eight comics each of which will focus on one
character of the Prequel Era. Maul will be the focus of issue #1 followed by Qui-
Gon, Obi-Wan, Jango, Anakin, Dooku,
Padme and Grievous. It has also been reported that this series will be followed
by "Star Wars: Age of Rebellion" (written by Greg Pak), and "Star Wars: Age of
Resistance" (written by Tom Taylor).
2019: The Year of the
Prequel Era
Many
fans noted that “Solo: A Star Wars Story” was the first Disney Star Wars film to
heavily reference the prequel-era including nods to Aura Sing, the Pyke Syndicate
and Darth Maul. Yet 2019 (the 20th anniversary year of the Phantom
Menace) will be the year that Disney really doubles-down and truly embraces the
prequel-era. This could be refreshing for some fans or perhaps seen as a step
backward by others. Still, it will be interesting to see what Disney can do
with this controversial era of the Star Wars timeline.
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