Future ‘Star Wars’ Essential Legends Collection Books Reportedly Include ‘Darth Plagueis’ and ‘X-Wing: Rogue Squadron’
Lucasfilm and Del Rey are adding more stories to the Star Wars: The Essential Legends Collection line, and some fans have determined that Darth Plagueis and X-Wing: Rogue Squadron will be part of the second batch of rereleases. In addition, the next wave will also reportedly include further installments in The Thrawn Trilogy and The Darth Bane Trilogy.
While commemorating the 50th anniversary of the company, Lucasfilm is rereleasing some of the most beloved Star Wars Legends stories with trade paperbacks that have new cover artwork. While these novels are not set to be canonized and no new Legends stories are being greenlit, given that the direction of the Star Wars franchise changed once Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney and the development of the sequel trilogy necessitated a soft reboot, the move allows new readers and longtime fans experience these stories in a new way for the first time in years. The first wave of stories includes Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire, which introduced audiences to Grand Admiral Thrawn, Drew Karpyshyn’s Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, which built upon the backstory George Lucas created for the Sith in The Phantom Menace, and Matthew Stover’s Shatterpoint, a narrative focused on Mace Windu confronting his Padawan after she goes rogue. These three books will hit the shelves on June 15, 2021.
Now, there’s an indication that the next wave of Star Wars: The Essential Legends Collection books will hit on September 7, 2021. According to some now-deleted listings seen on Edelweiss (hat tip r/StarWarsLeaks), James Luceno’s Darth Plagueis and Michael A. Stackpole’s first novel in the X-Wing series, Rogue Squadron. The former explores the Sith Lord first described as a mythic figure by Darth Sidious to Anakin Skywalker, secretly being the man who trained the future Emperor, and the latter put Wedge Antilles in the spotlight in the first major Star Wars narrative that did not feature Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, or Princess Leia Organa. Additionally, Zahn’s Dark Forces Rising and Karpyshyn’s Rule of Two, continuing the Thrawn and Darth Bane series described in the previous paragraph, are among the new listings that were discovered.
It is not known how long Lucasfilm will publish these reprints, and they have stated that their focus is on the canonical Star Wars setting rather than using these books as a backdoor attempt to relaunch the Legends line concurrently with the content affecting the Star Wars setting going forward. For now, however, it can be presumed that Zahn’s The Last Command and Karpyshyn’s Dynasty of Evil would be part of a hypothetical third wave, with it being uncertain if other X-Wing books will be getting the same treatment as Rogue Squadron.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
