Project Luminous will continue Star Wars storytelling by sharing its lore

Last night in the Disney executive dining room high atop its offices at Disney’s headquarters in Burbank, California, a very small group (including me) where invited to be the first to know a deep Star Wars secret.

Project Luminous.

It was a phrase that was teased at last year’s Star Wars Celebration in Chicago, saying that it would usher in the next chapter of Star Wars stories. That was indeed true when Disney Publishing leaders welcome everyone to the event to official unveil what this was all about.

They played that video above. And if you didn’t get a chance to watch it, here’s a breakdown of what it is:

• It’s a publishing project that connects multiple stories within a specific setting across multiple products (novels, comics, etc.)

• That setting will be 200 years before the events of the Skywalker Saga, the times of The High Republic

• The High Republic is a time when the Galactic Republic from the Skywalker Saga was at its height and their protectors, the Jedi, are also the leaders when it came to establishing peace and justice throughout the galaxy

• New protagonist characters like the Jedi of the Round Table will anchor The High Republic stories, along with new enemies dubbed the Nihil

• New places in the galaxy will also be revealed for the first time, including a new spaceport called The Starlight Beacon

— You can also check out my Twitter feed to see my live tweet of the enter event complete with pictures and video of some of the things noted above.

The first novel in Phase 1 of the 5-product story, called “The Light of The Jedi” written by Charles Soule, will introduce us and set up the new The High Republic era, as well as introduce the main engine that will drive the entire narrative forward: what do the Jedi fear?

There’s a lot that still needs to be revealed about the project, and we won’t have to wait long for that to happen. “Light of The Jedi” debuts on August 25, 2020, just a few days shy of the massive Star Wars Celebration in Anaheim this year. There will most likely be an in-depth panel on it, too.

Altogether, it will be an exciting time to once again see books and other printed projects propel this next generation of Star Wars stories like they did before, during, and after the Skywalker Saga films and TV shows. It will likely lead to many of these stories making their way into Disney’s other products like movies, TV shows, and theme park attractions that we can only dream of for now.