Coming off the heels of San Diego Comic-Con 2024 where we got a slew of book and comic news (see all of that here), Star Wars publishing had one more surprise up their sleeve for fans! Announced exclusively through io9, a new trilogy focusing on the politics behind the scenes of the Rebellion covering two decades of storytelling is on the way. The first book, The Mask of Fear, will arrive in February 2025.
Star Wars: Reign of the Empire is a trilogy of novels showcasing favorites like Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, Saw Gerrera, and new original characters to explore the political landscape changing over two decades during Emperor Palpatine's reign. The first novel is titled The Mask of Fear and will be penned by Alexander Freed. Senior Editor at Del Ray, Tom Hoeler, shared more details on his Twitter account, including who would head up the second and third books. Rebecca Roanhorse will write book 2 and Fran Wilde will pen book 3.
Beginning February 2025 - a new series #StarWars #ReignoftheEmpire. A trilogy charting the rise of the rebellion, across the near 2 decades between Ep 3 and 4.
— Tom (@DarthInternous) July 29, 2024
Book 1: The Mask of Fear (Alexander Freed)
Book 2 - Rebecca Roanhorse
Book 3 - Fran Wildehttps://t.co/EG8WFQ0QDd
In a follow-up Twitter thread, Hoeler provided more details about the trilogy, explaining that the first book's title is a nod to the Andor character Nemik.
"'Oppression is the Mask of Fear' - Nemik. This is not a direct Andor tie-in (not a Nemik book) but that perfectly captures the tone. "Tom Hoeler
He continued to explain, "The entire goal of this trilogy was to tell stories with the same intent/specificity/sense of place & people, and 'saying something real' that Andor does. We want to honor that as best we can (acknowledging it's a bit of a ludicrous and lofty goal). Each book will cover one portion of that nearly 20-year gap, starting with Book 1 during 'Empire Year One.' The series will jump forward with each book - we're really taking advantage of the amount of time so each book can be a full, complete story."
Couldn't be happier about the three authors who agreed to join us in telling these stories.
— Tom (@DarthInternous) July 29, 2024
Alexander Freed, Rebecca Roanhorse, Fran Wilde. pic.twitter.com/iYGTgpahBu
Hoeler finished the Twitter thread with some suggested reading before The Mask of Fear is released.
Think we'll end the thread here...but oh is there so much more to talk about as we get closer to February. In the meantime...
— Tom (@DarthInternous) July 29, 2024
Read Alex Freed's Mon Mothma story in From a Certain POV: ANH
Read Resistance Reborn by Rebecca Roanhorse
Read Fran Wilde's Mon story in FACPOV: ROTJ
Check out all the details about Reign of the Empire on io9, including the official summary of The Mask of Fear.