This week has brought some major SW news in the form of the announcement of a brand new corner of the franchise that’ll stretch across the mediums. Star Wars: The High Republic will encompass comics, novels and more and consist of interconnected stories taking place 200 years before The Phantom Menace, during a period when the galaxy was a place of peace and prosperity and the Jedi were at their peak.
However, as the saga has taught us all too well, where there are Jedi there are Sith and The High Republic will be no different. At one point in the announcement trailer for the project, we see a shot of a whiteboard in the writer’s room at Skywalker Ranch which features a list of the writing team’s goals and aspirations for the initiative. The third column is titled “Star Wars Wishes” and appears to be things they want to include but likely haven’t plotted out yet. And among them is written “Sith Empire.”
See for yourself:
The publicity around The High Republic has cast the Nihil as the main villains of this period, and they’re space vikings who represent chaos that threatens the order the Jedi have brought to the cosmos. However, it only makes sense that the Sith will turn up in time as well.
According to current canon, the Sith faded into the shadows following the age of the Old Republic and it wasn’t until Darth Sidious that they rose again and once more conquered the galaxy. Establishing a new Sith Empire a couple of centuries prior to this, then, would be a bit of a big tweak to the established history. However, you can’t blame the writers for being keen to explore the Sith in Star Wars: The High Republic. It’s almost as exciting a prospect as dropping dinosaurs into the mix, too.