New Animated Shorts Feature Characters Of ‘Star Wars: The High Republic’
Lucasfilm continues to delve into the bold new era of The High Republic with a new series of animated shorts focusing on key characters like Jedi Knight Vernestra Rwoh.
Star Wars: The High Republic is a multimedia epic set two centuries before the events of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, during the prime of the Jedi Order. It spans novels, comic books, and short stories, written by a brain trust of outstanding Star Wars writers including Justina Ireland, Charles Soule, Daniel Day Older, Cavan Scott, and Claudia Gray.
Lucasfilm launched Characters of Star Wars: The High Republic, a new series of animated shorts that tells the stories of The High Republic’s heroes and villains. Featuring colorful animation and vibrant narration, each episode focuses on one character and their journey leading up to the events that kick off The High Republic. The first is Vernestra Rwoh, a gifted Padawan.
Rwoh is the apprentice of Jedi Master Stellan Gios, who has featured in the first full-length novel of The High Republic, Light of the Jedi. At sixteen years old, she’s one of the youngest active Jedi in the Order. She features heavily in the new YA novel by Justina Ireland, A Test Of Courage.
The animated short has quite a bit in common with the Galaxy Of Adventures shorts in terms of style and length. It’s just over a minute, so it’s a quick and visually compelling introduction to one of the more interesting new characters in The High Republic era so far.
“The High Republic is a unique and fresh era of Star Wars storytelling with all new characters and a unique visual aesthetic, so we couldn’t help but want to see our new heroes and villains jump out of the page and into animation,” Matt Martin of the Lucasfilm Story Group said of the animated shorts. “We were trying to find a look for these videos that could appeal to a broad range of fans, from kids to adults, and I think what Eastham Studios came up with is really special.”
Characters of Star Wars: The High Republic will be available exclusively on YouTube.com/StarWars and StarWars.com.
DARBY HARN is a novelist, freelance writer and podcaster. His novels include Ever The Hero, The Judgement of Valene, Nothing Ever Ends and A Country Of Eternal Light. His short fiction appears in Strange Horizons, Interzone, Shimmer and other venues.
