From what we know so far, Star Wars: The High Republic is a vast narrative that’ll take a long while to unfold, but since we don’t have a ton of confirmed details about the project, fans are already theorizing about who might end up being the big bad of the new era.
Now that the Skywalker Saga has officially come to an end, even if it’s an unsatisfying and divisive one, folks are eager to know what’s next. Obviously, Lucasfilm is currently developing the next saga of movies, but for fans who already miss that galaxy far, far away, Project Luminous will serve as a great substitute until the new films arrive. As we’ve come to learn, Star Wars: The High Republic will take us back 200 years before the events of The Phantom Menace and depict the glorious days of the Galactic Republic when the Jedi were at the height of their power.
The creators describe this old generation of the Jedi as quite literally the knights of the Round Table, which is why Lucasfilm came up with a powerful force to oppose them; the Nihil, or whom the writers refer to as “space Vikings,” are a group of marauders that disturb the peace after the Great Disaster. To be fair, though, seeing as how these new villains aren’t as menacing as we’d hoped for them to be, there must be someone who’s pulling the strings from behind the curtains.
That’s why a lot of fans are theorizing that some characters from the Expanded Universe (now known as the non-canon Legends) might make an appearance in The High Republic. For instance, some suggested that the Nihil are connected to Darth Nihilus, hence the name. Now, however, there’s a new theory that says Abeloth could be the main villain of Project Luminous.
Abeloth, the Bringer of Chaos, was a powerful creature who served as the Mother in the group of the Ones who represented different aspects of the living Force. According to the theory, Lucasfilm wants to present a villain that “scares the Jedi” and what could be scarier than the living essence of chaos itself?
While that certainly is an interesting idea, we won’t know the answers for sure until the first novel of Star Wars: The High Republic, titled Light of the Jedi, releases on August 25th. Until then, though, feel free to speculate.
