Since taking over Star Wars in 2012, Disney has spent the majority of its creative force developing the New Republic period, and with the success of projects like The Mandalorian, it seems the future of the galaxy far, far away is going to center prominently around the conflict between the former Rebel Alliance and the Imperial remnants.
According to Dave Filoni, the most compelling angle when it comes to the New Republic is how the former Rebels slowly morph into inefficient rulers and the Imperial remnants start to resemble the anarchists. How Filoni portrays the failings of the New Republic is inspired by the stories in The Expanded Universe when he was a kid.
As he explained to Empire:
“Something that I understood as a kid was the conflict established in A New Hope – the Rebels versus the Empire. I thought something in the Expanded Universe that was very easy to understand was, in the New Republic and the Remnant Empire, that the tables have turned a little bit.”
The matters of governance are not so easy when you’re the one who has to make all the difficult decisions. What makes it worse is the fact that almost everyone believes their way is better, so it all leads to chaos down the road. That sounds an awful lot like, well, basically every revolution in history.
“‘It’s actually the Empire that’s acting more like the Rebels, because their resources are on the downside,’ Filoni continues. ‘But the New Republic is struggling because, while they’re all trying to work together, they have different ideas about how to be effective. That was an interesting story. And I think it creates a big piece of history where you can tell all kinds of stories.’”
The upcoming Ahsoka miniseries will further expand the conflict between these forces with the emergence of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Most fans recognize the genius militarist from Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire trilogy, though the villain also made his canonical debut in Star Wars Rebels.
Filoni remains dedicated to further fleshing out the New Republic. This journey started in the first season of The Mandalorian, where Mando encountered X-Wing enforcers in the outer reaches of the new government. Now, with the show’s third season, we’ve actually gone back to Coruscant, and that’s only the beginning for the world Lucasfilm is weaving into existence.
“We really only got around to [exploring] the New Republic with [the] X-Wings in the first two seasons, and we finally went to Coruscant in this latest season. So everything builds a little bit, as we’re fleshing out this part of the galaxy.”
And who knows? Maybe we’ll get to see more familiar faces and legacy characters like Luke Skywalker along the way.