The extended gap between movies sees Star Wars publishing reaching back to the prequel era for their most high profile SDCC announcements. Coming from Del Rey we have Master and Apprentice, a Qui-gon and Obi-wan novel from Claudia Gray (Bloodline, Princess of Alderaan). And from Disney-Lucasfilm press there’s the long-rumored Padme novel, Queen’s Shadow by E.K. Johnston (Ahsoka).
The Padme cover is by Tara Phillips, who editor Jen Heddle says she “found on Deviant Art.” Both books will be out in early 2019 and up for pre-order soon: Master and Apprentice in February, and Queen’s Shadow in March.
Mur Lafferty’s Solo novelization got a cover reveal, and like The Last Jedi it will be an “extended edition” with added detail. Del Rey says the new content includes “Qi’ra’s backstory, Han’s time in the Imperial Navy, and the beginnings of the Rebellion.” Robbie Thompson will be writing the comic adaptation.
Star Wars and IDW get into the Halloween spirit with an all-ages horror anthology miniseries, Tales from Vader’s Castle, written by Cavan Scott and illustrated by Derek Charm. They talk to StarWars.com about the series, which sounds pretty fun. (Vampire Dooku!) New issues will be released every Wednesday throughout October.
We got covers and blurbs for the Flight of the Falcon books, including two interior illustrations from Annie Wu for Justina Ireland’s Lando’s Luck. The young lady is Princess Rinetta. Ireland says: “This is Lando back when he is captain of the Millennium Falcon….He and L3 go on some adventures and they get into some shenanigans, because it wouldn’t be a Lando book without shenanigans. It’s for younger readers, so it’s going to be a more fun Lando. And there’s going to be some pew pew pew in there!”
Marvel will be following up the outgoing Poe Dameron with a maxi-series that will begin as Age of Republic (written by Jody Houser) and continue as Age of Rebellion (Greg Pak) and end as Age of Resistance (Tom Taylor.) It’s currently slated to last 30 issues, and will chronicle “the most iconic heroes & villains from across the galaxy.” The first issues, coming in December, will be Age of Republic: Qui-Gon #1 and Age of Republic: Darth Maul #1. Houser said: “It’s going to be four months, eight issues, and each month is going to have a hero story and a villain story.”
We learned that Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy will be writing the forward to Amy Ratcliffe’s Women of the Galaxy, as well as giving us our first look at some of the interior art. ( A fourth piece of Rae Sloane by Cryssy Cheung was shown at the panel.)
And some details about Thrawn: Alliances:
The book plays out in two separate timelines: one during the Clone Wars (between Season 5 of TCW and ROTS) with Anakin, Thrawn, and Padme, and the other is with Thrawn and Vader between the last two seasons of Rebels.
— Bryan Young @SDCC (@swankmotron) July 20, 2018
Zahn also states that since a story from Anakin’s past was being explored he was drawn to add padme because “You can’t have a good Anakin story without Padme” #starwars #sdcc
— Kai Is @SDCC (@YogiKai) July 20, 2018
More details and quotes at StarWars.com.