‘Young Jedi Adventures’ to Introduce High Republic Books and Comics Characters, Cavan Scott Revealed as Writer
Readers of the High Republic rejoice! New episodes of Young Jedi Adventures are coming to Disney Plus on November 8 and they’ll come with a special surprise. A pair of episodes will feature the animated debut of several major characters from this era’s books and comics. Helping make the jump from page to screen is fabled Star Wars and High Republic scribe Cavan Scott, who has been revealed as a writer for the animated Disney Plus series.
On November 8, the adventure continues with new episodes of Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures on Disney Junior and Disney+. pic.twitter.com/Xck0AsIYtq
— Star Wars (@starwars) October 12, 2023
IGN spoke with Scott and executive producer James Waugh about the inclusion and what fans can expect.
This sect of the High Republic era takes place 200 years before the Skywalker Saga, as made evident by our trio of Kai Brightstar, Lys Solay, and Nubs making the trek to Starlight Beacon itself. For those not in the know, Starlight Beacon was the Republic’s symbol of unity, freedom, and “light and life.”
Announced so far are two upcoming episodes titled “Charhound Chase” (written by Scott) and “Stuck in the Muck.” Among the characters coming to the series are Master Loden Greatstorm (voiced by Riverdale‘s Matthew Yang King) and his Padawan Bell Zettifar (voiced by Black-ish‘s Marcus Scribner).
Scott says bridging these two mediums was always the plan. In particular, He had this to say on the relationship between Kai and Bell:
“You’ve got a young man who is so excited about his future in the Jedi order, who’s excited to become a Padawan, who then hears that this legendary master is going to be coming to their planet and bringing in his Padawan. And so there was a real chance to do a story about hero worship and anticipation and excitement about the future.
And right from the start, Kai finds out, and he’s beside himself with excitement that Master Loden’s coming here. And he’s desperate to make a good impression, especially on Bell, because again, he sees himself as a future Bell. That’s how he wants to be. He wants to be a Padawan. He wants to go zooming around the galaxy with a master. That’s his entire life dream.”
Apparently in “Charhound Chase,” Bell’s beloved Ember goes missing, an event that’s the catalyst for growth for Kai. The duo added:
Scott: “Bell steps up and it’s Bell’s chance to be a bit of a master and to teach them some lessons to the younger Youngling, and they go off and search for Ember together.”
Waugh: “That’s actually what we’re always looking for with the stories for the show, is really that absolutely relatable human experience that a young kid can watch or a big kid like me can watch and understand that. Who hasn’t had mentors or people who they’ve been inspired by in their life that they’re either nervous around at first or they want to impress? And then the beauty of it is you end up learning that you have things to offer too. And it’s not about impressing them, it’s about sharing each other. And so I think that’s always sort of the lens we’re looking at when we’re working with writers on this show is what is the honest human experience here that a kid watching this can learn from?”
“Stuck in the Muck” will be the episode in which our youngling trio go to Starlight Beacon. There they will meet Jedi Master Estala Maru (voiced by The Bad Batch‘s Liam O’Brien). Seeing as this is the first time Starlight Beacon and these characters will be on screen, Waugh wanted to make sure they have the required impact. He said:
“Even giving things like the Starlight Beacon a theme and a sense of what does that feel like? What do we want to evoke when we see the Starlight Beacon? In publishing, you get that feeling from the beauty of the prose. With the tools of cinema, it’s what is that sound that makes you instantly feel the wonder and aspiration of the Starlight Beacon?
“Having to ask ourselves those questions and make those choices has been really fun. And that goes for – what’s the character theme for Bell? What’s Loden’s theme? What’s the musical cue that brings these characters to life? And, really, is there a signature? And it creates the sonic feeling that you want from those characters. So we handled it with care and it’s a really beautiful ending to it.”
Scott alluded to there being surprises in store on Starlight Beacon, describing it as a “if you know, you know” type of fan service. He said:
“There’s those moments that we watch, and if you happen to see in that episode of another show, or you know that old comic from the ‘70s or whatever, it’s just that moment of like, ‘Oh, there it is.’ And I think that’s the thing we can do with Star Wars. It’s so unique now because it has so much history that things just in the background sometimes mean a lot to people. And if you don’t know it, it doesn’t matter. You still got a great story and you’ve got something to discover in the future.”
These episodes will be set before Starlight Beacon’s dedication ceremony at the end of Light of the Jedi, which begs the question of if we’ll see Kai, Nubs, and Lys take part in key High Republic moments before Young Jedi Adventures season 1 finishes up next year. Meanwhile, these episodes and more will air on November 8 on Disney Plus and Disney Junior.
Nate uses his love for Star Wars and movies in general as a way to cope with the pain of being a Minnesota sports fan. When he's not at the theater, you can usually find Nate reading a comic, listening to an audiobook, or playing a Mario video game for the 1,000th time.
