Disney Doubles Down on Prequel Era

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 20^th 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.