Why The Lucasfilm Publishing Panel At NYCC Has Me Optimistic
Lucasfilm Publishing came to New York Comic Con and announced some interesting new books that could open up Star Wars to a new generation of readers.
So a few months back on an episode of Exploring Hyperspace Lanes, I talked about how the slate of announcements did not exactly fill me with optimism about the future of Star Wars. We seemed to be spending a lot of time hovering right around the original trilogy era and, with a franchise with literally thousands of years of lore to dive into, it is annoying (putting it mildly) that Disney only seems interested in telling stories within the same 25 year period, or The High Republic.
Well fast forward a few months and it seems Disney is taking steps to actually improve the storytelling situation at Lucasfilm. Sure a good amount of time was talking about art books which, while interesting, tend to be a little over-priced for what they are and sure they spent a lot of time going over the various comics that continue to be set in around the same time period (oh and more Boba Fett, lucky us).
There are two announcements that really piqued my interest however, the announcement of the book Star Wars: Legacy, and the announcement of Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars. One of my biggest complaints has been that the sequel trilogy was rushed into production with minimal prep, something admitted to in Bob Iger's book and visible over the course of the second half of the 2010s despite how much they try to gaslight the audience into thinking, so taking some time to flesh out these periods make a lot of sense. Considering what a seismic shift there is for both the Resistance and the First Order between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, there needs to be more than one book trying to explain what happens there.
Star Wars: Legacy might be a first step in that direction, a small one to be sure about Rey and Leia's relationship, but coupled with Shadow of the Sith, Resistance Reborn, and the upcoming The Last Order, it will do a lot to make the later Sequel-era feel more like there was a purpose to those movies.
On the other side of things, Eyes Like Stars is a pretty shrewd move for what is one of the lesser acknowledged parts of the Star Wars canon. Let's be real, I like the Star Wars books, but even I know I'm in the minority on that. There was also a sizable contingent of people who came to the franchise during the sequels and stuck around for the romance between Rey and Kylo Ren. I'm definitely not advocating we create a separate section of the fandom just for people who are into that, but with how popular Romantasy is, it would be stupid for Lucasfilm to discount a good amount of the fan community, especially with how much the relationship between Osha and Qimir in The Acolyte captured people's imaginations.
Disney has had a problem with retaining younger audiences so the idea to tap into one of the most popular literary genres and specifically target the young adult market is a decision that should have been made a long time ago. Hopefully this will help revitalize the franchise by bringing in new voices who may not have been interested had it not been for this series.
