3 biggest reveals from the Star Wars: The High Republic panel at Comic-Con

The High Republic shows no signs of stopping. In a panel Friday as part of San Diego Comic-Con’s lineup of streamed content, Star Wars fans were treated to a few big reveals that will most certainly be worth the wait.

YouTube’s The High Republic Show host Krystina Arielle managed to wrangle the publishing initiative’s “architects” (authors) into one virtual room for a discussion on what we’ve seen so far — and what’s to come in 2022. Cavan Scott, Charles Soule, Justina Ireland, Claudia Gray, and Daniel José Older shared their biggest takeaways from writing the stories we’ve already seen… and some hints at future stories.

You can watch the full 30-minute pre-recorded panel below, or scroll down for the highlights.

The High Republic: This is Geode’s galaxy, and we’re just living in it

Arielle and the architects (what a great space-band name) couldn’t spend a half-hour talking about The High Republic without giving the internet’s new favorite maybe-sentient rock some love.

According to Gray — who first introduced the character in Phase 1’s first YA novel Into the Dark — writing Geode is similar to what writing Chewbacca must be like. Without words, you have to rely on other characters to convey his presence.

“The whole fun of that character is looking at all the ways in prose that we talk about character reactions or interactions that aren’t either body language or verbal,” she said. “There are actually a ton of ways that we do that. I hadn’t even realized how many until I started playing with it.”

At this point, Geode has already gained his own cult following on Twitter despite the fact that no one actually knows how he does … anything? He’s a giant space rock. We love our resident giant space rock.

New Star Wars books: The High Republic, Phase 1, Wave 3

Though we’re about to finish up a second round of books set in The High Republic era, we’re still technically in the first phase of the initiative — of which, at this point, there are three. We’re in the second wave of Phase 1, which will continue this month with Ireland’s YA novel Out of the Shadows.

Friday’s panel ended with the Wave 3 reveals Star Wars fans were hoping for. Like the first two waves of books, this will include an adult novel, a young adult novel, and a middle-grade story alongside both ongoing comic series The High Republic and The High Republic Adventures.

Ireland will once again take on the middle-grade story, while the other architects will take on other respective projects.

• Adult novel: The Fallen Star (Grey)
• YA novel: Midnight Horizon (Older)
• Middle-grade novel: Mission to Disaster (Ireland)

Presumably, Scott is skipping this round due to definitely deserving a break after everything he’ll have released by the end of 2021. His next addition to The High Republic, Tempest Runner, will release in the form of an audio drama this fall.

But books aren’t the only thing to look forward to in Phase 3. Star Wars comic writer extraordinaire Soule will debut a brand-new comic mini-series.

New Star Wars comic: The Eye of the Storm

Soule gained massive credibility for his Darth Vader (2017) comic run, and his Rise of Kylo Ren miniseries gave many Ben Solo fans the heartbreaking backstory they craved.

Now, Marchion Ro stans will get more of the complex villain’s backstory in two separate issues, both 30 pages in length as opposed to the usual 22-24 comic issue standard.

Soule calls Ro “absolutely terrifying.” Correct. The Eye is always watching. Always.

Don’t forget to grab your copy of Out of the Shadows, Justina Ireland’s latest addition to the High Republic saga, hitting physical and digital shelves July 27.