With a little over a month until the next Star Wars book drops, we’re finally getting a deeper look at Luke Skywalker’s mysterious new villain in Shadow of the Sith.
The new adult novel from Adam Christopher is gearing up to be deliciously dark, taking place about 20 years after Return of the Jedi and roughly a decade before The Force Awakens. But even as the last remnants of the Empire and Sith Lord Darth Sidious seem to be finally gone, the book features Luke Skywalker, now a Jedi Master, still haunted by dark side visions.
Shadow of the Sith will follow Luke teaming up again with his old comrade Lando Calrissian to investigate reports of a new Sith villain and to find Lando’s daughter, who was kidnapped. The book follows their journey to learn more about and find Exegol, the lightning storm-filled desert planet that was home to the remnants of the Sith Eternal cult.
They also run into Ochi of Bestoon, who was introduced in The Rise of Skywalker as the Sith assassin tasked with hunting down Rey, Palpatine‘s granddaughter.
But the newest excerpt shared by io9 teases an entirely different villain – a Sith agent who Star Wars said will be familiar to fans who have read the canon novels.
"And there is another sound. A voice, from the ancient past. It is far distant, a call echoing across a huge valley of space and time.The voice is terrible.The voice is as familiar as her own.SOON.She opens her golden eyes. The room is bright and, mercifully, silent. Her ears ring like a bell, the sudden absence of screams almost as painful, the echo of the voice still reverberating in her mind.Slowly, slowly, she remembers where she is. As she lies on the floor and blinks the world into existence around her, she pulls up a hand and touches her face. It is warm, and wet, the blood on her fingertips the bright blue of the Pantoran sky."
While the excerpt doesn’t share this Sith agent’s name, avid Star Wars readers already have some guesses as to who she might be.
Because of the mention of the Pantoran sky, it’s highly possible that she is Pantoran – a blue-skinned species who lived on the moon Pantora. Pantoran characters have been seen throughout the Star Wars timeline, including in The High Republic era and The Clone Wars series and on the new Galactic Starcruiser the Halcyon at Walt Disney World.
Considering the canon media from around the same time as this upcoming novel, signs point to the Aftermath trilogy by Chuck Wendig. Specifically, Pantoran female Kiza, who was a member of the Acolytes of the Beyond – a cult that worshipped the dark side and the Sith and was essentially an underling to the more powerful Sith Eternal.
It’s unlikely that Star Wars will confirm who this new Sith menace really is before the book releases, but we will learn more when Shadow of the Sith comes out on June 28.
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