After months of rumors, Star Wars‘ next big project has been officially unveiled. The High Republic will be set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, during a more chaotic, lawless time for the galaxy. Much of the galaxy is still uncharted, though the Jedi are already well-established and have formed a kind of Knights of the Round Table to keep the peace. It seems that the over-arching plotline will be their conflict with the Nihil, who’ve been described as “space Vikings.” Neat.
The big reveal included a trailer showing the creative thinking behind the new setting, as well as the inaugural first phase of comics and novels setting things up. The first release will be Charles Soule’s Light of the Jedi, which hits shelves on August 25th. The cover art for the book shows off the look of this era’s Jedi and fans were quick to spot that there’s a fully-fledged Wookiee Jedi on it.
Soule has claimed that this is the Jedi story he’s been itching to write for since he was six, and went into more detail on Twitter about the new Wookiee character, saying:
“Yes, that’s a Wookiee Jedi, his name is Burryaga Agaburry, and he is wonderful. The lady in front is named Avar Kriss. The other folks have names too, but you’ll meet them later. More soon!”
I can’t wait to find out more about Burryaga. But he won’t be the first Force-sensitive Wookiee in Star Wars. We’ve seen the Wookiee Padawan Gungi in six episodes of The Clone Wars, and though we don’t know his eventual fate, he seemed to be fairly talented. For fans with longer memories, there’s also Tyvokka from the old Legends continuity. He was the Jedi who trained weird-lookin’ Jedi Master Plo Koon, as well as palling around with a young Obi-Wan and eventually holding a spot on the Jedi High Council.
It’s always nice to see Star Wars putting Wookiees in pride of place in their line-ups, and here’s hoping Burryaga Agaburry gets a prominent place in the plot and does Kashyyyk proud in the Star Wars: The High Republic.