Star Wars: Catalyst, A Rogue One Prequel Book, Is Coming In October

Star Wars: Catalyst,a prequel novel to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is coming October 4th.

The announcement of Catalyst was made during the Star Wars Books panel at C2E2. The release date is October 4th, but the name of the author was not disclosed.

Other news out of the panel is the announcement of a new Lego Star Wars book by Adam Bray author of Star Wars: Absolutely Everything You Need To Know). Panelists included Bray, Jeffrey Brown (Darth Vader and Friends), Claudia Gray (Bloodline), John Jackson Miller (A New Dawn), and Del Rey editor, Elizabeth Schaefer.

It’s curious that the author attached to Catalyst was not announced (though Del Rey’s official Star Wars Books Instagram account promised a name soon). Someone on Twitter suggested it might be because the author writing Catalyst has not signed a contract yet. Since John Jackson Miller, who hasn’t written a Star Wars book since A New Dawn in 2014, was in attendance, it might be safe to mark him as a plausible suspect for the authorship of Catalyst.

Earlier today, it was revealed that Marvel would be releasing a 3-issue mini series titled Rogue One, also slated to debut in October. It was not confirmed that the comic series would be a prequel like Catalyst, but considering its release date is more than two full months prior to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story‘s premiere in theaters, it’s not likely to be anything but a prologue.

John Jackson Miller made the interesting point that Star Wars canon in all media is planned “years in advance.”

Whatever the Rogue One comic series and prequel book are about, then, readers can be sure they’ll matter and won’t just be filler material to tide us over till the film comes out.

Next: Star Wars Rebels Recap: The Forgotten Droid

With all this news about Rogue One literature being on the way, maybe we can expect a trailer for actual film in the near future.