The new Disney+ Star Wars show The Acolyte did not change any High Republic plans, says author Cavan Scott. Starting in 2021, Star Wars began releasing a media series called The High Republic, an era of time in the Star Wars universe that takes place 200 years before the events of A New Hope and 800 years after the demise of the Old Republic. This series interweaves between comics and books and will be canon within the Star Wars lore. Lucasfilm plans for these stories to influence at least one upcoming Star Wars project: the Disney+ show The Acolyte.
The Acolyte, written by Leslye Headland, was one of the 10 Star Wars shows discussed by Disney in late 2020. While there have not been many plot points revealed about the series, there’s speculation the show could introduce Darth Plagueis, who was Emperor Palpatine’s Sith master that Palpatine murdered. The Acolyte takes place towards the end of The High Republic era, so the timing of this would make sense. Either way, it seems like everything that will be in the books and comics could potentially lay the backstory for certain events in The Acolyte.
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Due to the show’s close connection with The High Republic, it’s natural to wonder if The High Republic writers will now have to change any story elements to better fit the series. Scott, who is the author of one of the upcoming High Republic novels and current writer of the comics, was asked this question in an interview with the ComicBook Nation podcast. When asked specifically about The High Republic and whether The Acolyte forced them to change any of their plans, he said the following:
No, because I think we predated that ’cause we’ve been working on this for a good number of years now. So what happened was people were getting excited about the High Republic as we were creating it, which was great to see, and there have been all these other plans as well but the great thing that Star Wars is so good at is taking the ‘Things been worked on over here. This thing’s been worked over on here, so let’s bring it together.’ And I mean the High Republic as an era goes on for an awful long time, because, you know, it’s that period of time before the fall of the Jedi. And so, it’s been really exciting to sort of see other threads of Star Wars coming in as they’ve been developed as well and see us all working together to get that for those final points. But yeah, it’s going to be exciting isn’t it?
Thankfully, based on these comments, it appears as though The Acolyte had no effect on what’s being established through The High Republic books and comics. The writers of The High Republic had likely already committed to an overarching story long before the upcoming Disney+ show was announced, as Scott points out they’ve been working on it for some time. His comment about the length of the High Republic era makes sense, too; there’s a lot of room for multiple creators to make their mark.
Regardless, it’s exciting there’s so much new Star Wars content coming over the next few years. Between the High Republic stories and upcoming shows like The Acolyte, audiences have plenty to look forward to. It’s clear the Star Wars universe will continue to expand for years to come.
Source: ComicBook
