Trivia / Star Wars: The High Republic

• Channel Hop: With IDW Publishing's contract with Lucasfilm expiring in 2022, the publishing rights for The High Republic Adventures series would be handed to Dark Horse Comics starting with the main series of Phase II. It's notable that The High Republic Adventures outlived its parent comic series while continuing to go by the same name.
• Creator's Favorite: In The High Republic launch event livestream, the authors were asked who their favorite characters were. Claudia Gray's is a tie between Geode and Leox, Charles Soule's is Marchion Ro, Cavan Scott's is Sskeer, Daniel José Older's is Lula, and Justina Ireland's is Sylvestri Yarrow, who had yet to debut when the interview took place.
• Dear Negative Reader: After the announcement was followed by bizarre fan backlash over misinterpreted details (mainly the “space dinosaurs” joke), a couple of the writers took the joke in stride on Twitter.
• Hypothetical Casting: Claudia Gray has stated in the launch event livestream that she fancasts '90's Matthew McConaughey as Leox.
• Meaningful Release Date:
  • A variant. Light of the Jedi and A Test of Courage are to be released on January 5th, 2021, with the first issue of The High Republic comic releasing on the 6th.
  • Likewise, Into the Dark has a February 2, 2021 release date, with the first issue of The High Republic Adventures being released the following day.
• Meme Acknowledgement: Being active on Twitter, the authors are quite aware of the memes surrounding Geode. They're also aware of the Estrogen Brigade behind Marchion Ro.
• Promoted Fanboy: Shima Shinya (also known as shima_spoon on social media), one of the writers for The Edge of Balance manga, is a popular Star Wars fanartist.
• Release Date Change: Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, the first Phase I books with previously announced release dates — Light of the Jedi (August 25, 2020), A Test of Courage (September 8, 2020), and Into the Dark (October 13, 2020) — were all moved to early 2021 releases. Light of the Jedi and A Test of Courage were given a synchronized release on January 5th, 2021, with Into the Dark premiering on February 2, 2021. To compensate, Lucasfilm resorted to Early Bird Releases of rather sizable sneak peeks of the Phase I books and comics, including the first eight chapters of Light of the Jedi and uncolored previews of both the first issues of The High Republic and The High Republic Adventures comics.
• Schedule Slip: The Phase II release schedule of The High Republic Adventures under Dark Horse Comics was very inconsistent. While the main THRA comic started off with monthly issues, some of the comics (including The Nameless Terror and the Quest of the Jedi one-shot) started going through delays for currently-unspecified reasons when the publishing initiative was releasing the second-half novels. Events from these novels spoiled parts of the last few issues of the comics (including Marvel's main High Republic comic, which eventually released its last two issues within the same month due to Path of Vengeance spoiling how it ends) before they released, which eventually led to the last two issues of The Nameless Terror being released in the same month, and the last three issues of the main THRA comic being released all at once to make up for lost time, especially since Phase III would start in a few months.
• Shrug of God: When asked if Ram is autistic or at least neurodivergent, author Daniel José Older responded that he wrote him with his neurodivergent friends in mind while also using his own thoughts and possibly being neurodivergent himself, so "I guess the answer is yes."
• What Could Have Been:
  • Concept art from the announcement depicts different lightsaber colors for the Jedi. For example, Lula with a pink-bladed lightsaber instead of the blue-bladed lightsaber she has in the final product while Vernestra is the opposite.
  • Cavan Scott has stated that from this concept art◊, the blonde woman in the center is not Avar Kriss while the other taken concepts became Sskeer, Ceret and Terec, Estala Maru, and at least one then-unrevealed character (most likely referring to both Ty Yorrick and Orla Jareni).
    • Ceret and Terec are Composite Characters of the Zabrak twins and a member of their species seen in the aforementioned concept art.
    • Estala Maru was originally conceptualized as a Twi'lek Jedi until Charles Soule created another Twi'lek Jedi, Loden Greatstorm, for Light of the Jedi, leading to Cavan Scott changing Maru to a Kessurian.
  • In Out of the Shadows, author Justina Ireland originally planned for a love triangle between Syl, Jordanna, and Xylan, but realized that neither Syl nor Ireland herself liked Xylan and decided to scrap it.
  • Vane Sarpo was supposed to be a recurring character in the comics before author Cavan Scott decided to focus on Keeve and Sskeer more and cut his inclusion. Vane instead made his first appearance in the Past Mistakes Insider short story.
• Working Title: Penguin Random House's codename for The Fallen Star shortly prior to its reveal announcement was Godbrand.
• Write What You Know: When asked if Ram Jamboram was on the autism spectrum, his creator Daniel José Older responded that Ram was mostly written with his own thoughts as well as additions from his friends who are neurodivergent, though also notes that he himself may also be neurodivergent as he was never tested, so the answer is "I guess the answer is yes, it was in my mind but I don't know how much exactly."

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