At Del Rey’s Star Wars publishing panel today at San Diego Comic Con, the company announced several upcoming releases that are quite exciting.
Most prominent among them are new novels about Padme, as well as about Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan novel, titled Master and Apprentice, will be written by Claudia Gray, who has written Lost Stars, Bloodline, and Leia: Princess of Alderaan. The Padme novel, called Queen’s Shadow, will be written by E.K. Johnson, who previously wrote Ahsoka. Here’s a look at that cover:
Master and Apprentice will release in February 2019, while Queen’s Shadow will release in March.
That’s not all, however! Another exciting announcement was the upcoming Age of Republic comic series, which features a different hero and villain each issue. This series is being written by Jody Houser, and it will apparently feature Qui-Gon Jinn, Maul, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Jango Fett, Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku, Padme Amidala, and General Grievous. The series will then transition into Age of Rebellion and Age of Resistance, seemingly featuring the same style series as the Republic one. Speaking of comic series, the terrific current Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith series will be beginning a seven-part story titled “Fortress Vader” that will explore Vader’s castle on Mustafar, first seen in Rogue One.
Additionally, Amy Ratcliffe’s upcoming Women of the Galaxy book (releasing on October 30) got an exciting update at the panel today too, as Ratcliffe revealed that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy is writing the forward! There was also some really cool art revealed from the book featuring Padme, Rey, Rae Sloane, and Ahsoka:
On the Solo front, the official novelization (which releases September 4 and is written by Mur Lafferty) will, according to Del Rey, feature “new content including Qi’ra’s backstory, Han’s time in the Imperial Navy, and the beginnings of the Rebellion.” The cover art was released today:
Overall, that’s quite a bit of exciting news for Star Wars publishing! We were certain to get some reveals today, because after the release of the highly-anticipated Thrawn: Alliances next week there wasn’t much on the calendar. It’s really exciting to be getting more prequel-era content, as the Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan novel will be the first book in the new canon to be set pre-TPM (some comics have been, but no books). The Padme novel will explore Padme’s transition from Queen to Senator, which places it in-between TPM and AOTC.
I’m really excited for both of these (and the other releases mentioned too), but I’m most excited for Master and Apprentice. It will be awesome to get a story about Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan, but more than that Claudia Gray is terrific, and everything she has written for Star Wars so far has been gold and among the best in the new canon. So I can’t wait for that one, though hall of these releases should be awesome!
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