It was recently revealed that Lucasfilm’s mysterious Project Luminous was in fact a new set of Star Wars stories within an era known as The High Republic. However, the unveiling was not the first time the name had been mentioned, as it was also spoken of in passing in the The Rise of Kylo Ren comic.
As you might expect, the series gives some backstory to Kylo and shows his accepting the guidance of Snoke and the extent of his whining and petulance even back then. The second issue of the series largely takes place some years prior to the present when Kylo was still a teenager, seeing him travel with Luke Skywalker and Lor San Tekka (the village elder from the opening of The Force Awakens who knew the way to find Luke) as they investigate a buried building on an Outer Rim planet in search of lost Jedi artifacts. Of the location, Lor states:
“I think after all my wanderings, I can recognize the description of a Jedi outpost when I hear it… It’s probably High Republic era. It was a time of greatly expanded Jedi activity throughout the galaxy.”
The search also features Kylo’s first encounter with the vicious Dark Side warrior known as Ren, providing him with his first inkling of what he might be capable of outwith the ranks of the newly formed Jedi he was already becoming disillusioned with.
Despite Star Wars’ Sequel Trilogy being poorly planned out and blithely contradictory due to the opposing visions of J.J. Abrams and Rian Johnson, the accompanying tie-in material seems to have been developed with far more cohesion and understanding of the expanded world it’s gradually unveiling and the future intentions of the associated titles, which certainly bodes well for the prospects of The High Republic material and reader reaction to it.