Warning: This article contains spoilers from The Acolyte season 1.
One of the biggest announcements to come out of Lucasfilm's publishing panel at San Diego Comic-Con was that The Acolyte will have two tie-in novels releasing in 2025. The first novel, Wayseeker by Justina Ireland, follows Vernestra Rwoh 20 years before the series. The other currently untitled book, it is a young adult novel written by Tessa Gratton that will focus on Yord Fandar and Jecki Lon.
I am thrilled by these announcements for several reasons, the first being that there have not been any tie-in novels for any of the newly released movies or television series since The Rise of Skywalker in 2019.
There was a planned novel for The Mandalorian to be written by Adam Christopher, but it was canceled. There have also been comic adaptations for many of the Disney+ television series, including The Mandalorian and Obi-Wan Kenobi, but they only directly adapt the events from the shows in a condensed manner and do not tell any new stories.
Wayseeker and the Yord and Jecki novel prove that there can still be new publishing stories that tie directly into the new movies and Disney+ series. This bodes well for many upcoming projects, especially for James Mangold and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy's movies, as publishing can help provide further context for the new and unexplored eras surrounding these stories.
Beyond what it means for the franchise's future, I am excited by these announcements because they will help bridge the gap between The High Republic publishing initiative and The Acolyte and allow us to spend more time with characters who were killed. As fun as it was to see Vernestra in live-action, it was also jarring since she felt like such a different character from The High Republic.
Wayseeker can help bridge that gap by providing more insight into how Vernestra and the galaxy as a whole changed from Phase III of The High Republic to the time of The Acolyte. Temptation of the Force and other High Republic stories have included details that make me see why Vernestra may have changed so much, which Wayseeker can build on.
Wayseekers, who are essentially Jedi granted permission to operate independently and outside the confines of the Order, are a fascinating concept from The High Republic that I was hoping to see in The Acolyte. I cannot wait to see Vernestra as a Wayseeker in a portion of the High Republic era that has not been touched on yet.
As for the Yord and Jecki novel, I really enjoyed both these characters and their dynamic in The Acolyte. Their deaths were genuinely shocking and served an important narrative purpose in episode 5, "Night," but it was also disappointing to lose them so soon. This upcoming novel provides an opportunity to spend more time with them and experience more of their stories without undermining their tragic endings in The Acolyte.
In addition to Vernestra, Jecki, and Yord, we will also get more of other Acolyte characters, including Jecki's teacher, Jedi Master Sol, and Jedi Master Indara, who appears on the Wayseeker cover. I'm still not over Sol's death, and there is definitely a lot more to learn about Indara, whose role was limited after dying at the beginning of the first episode.
Just as reading The Living Force makes The Phantom Menace even better, The Acolyte will be even more compelling to watch after reading Wayseeker and the Yord and Jecki novel. What makes these novels even more perfect is that veteran High Republic authors are writing them. Wayseeker specifically is being written by Ireland, who told Vernestra's first major story in A Test of Courage, along with many of her other prominent appearances.
While I am also intrigued by The Acolyte's Wookiee Jedi Master Kelnacca playing a role in upcoming comics, the format of novels works better for me than comics. Nevertheless, the future Kelnacca stories are promising for many of the same reasons as Wayseeker and the Yord and Jecki novel.