Meet The Villains of STAR WARS: THE HIGH REPUBLIC
Lucasfilm has revealed some more new characters from its upcoming line of stories for Star Wars: The High Republic along with some new details. These characters involve the villains that will be introduced.
This story is set 200 years before the Skywalker Saga begins with The Phantom Menace, and the first book in the series will launch with The High Republic: The Light of the Jedi.
It’s been explained that The High Republic was "a golden time. A time of peace and prosperity. A time when the Jedi really are galactic guardians, stewards of peace and justice." The initiative was also described as the "Jedi Knights of the Round Table" at a time featuring "space Vikings.”
When talking about the development of these characters, Lucasfilm Publishing creative director Michael Siglain said:
“One of the north stars for this initiative is to answer the question, ‘What scares the Jedi?’ Which is a really fun but extraordinarily challenging question to answer. All five authors, as well as the Story Group and Publishing teams, had thoughts on what would scare them — and why — but everyone agreed that had to be something new.”
Below you’ll get a first look at these villainous characters in Star Wars: The High Republic along with details that you might be interested in learning.
The Drengir
Meet the Drengir: “Unsettling, amorphous beings, chock full of tentacles and teeth. In other words, pure Star Wars nightmare fuel.” Cavan Scott, writer of Marvel’s upcoming The High Republic series, talked about this creature, saying:
“As the Jedi struggle to deal with the aftermath of the Great Disaster, a new creeping terror rises from the ground beneath their feet. The Drengir are sentient plant-life who are looking to reap a terrible harvest across the galactic frontier. The seed for the vegetation-based villains came from a sketch by [legendary Star Wars concept artist] Iain McCaig in the early days of The High Republic’s development. Iain had been sketching monsters and there was one creature that was covered in vines and creepers. It sparked off the inspiration for what became the Drengir and I quickly fired off a document outlining what could be their culture and background to the rest of the group, drawing on research I’d been reading about how real-world plants thrive and communicate with each other.”
The Nihil
When talking about The Nihil, Charles Soule, writer of the novel Light of the Jedi said:
“The Nihil are brutal, savage marauders, based in the Outer Rim. They’re the stuff of nightmares, able to appear anywhere almost at will. They use bizarre, intimidating tactics — chemical weapons, poison — anything that might kill you, they’ll use.”
It’s explained that unlike the monstrous Drengir, the Nihil “plan and plot and have a power structure. Which might just make them even more terrifying in the end.” Soule goes on to say:
“The Nihil are organized into three main divisions called Tempests, each with its own captain who wields total control. They are frightening in a way that feels great for Star Wars, in part because their ‘code,’ if you can call it that, is so simple: the Nihil take what they want. If you stand in their way, they will kill you and everyone you love. But even chaos agents can have goals…and the Nihil’s plans run directly through both the Republic and the Jedi Order.”
Marchion Ro
Another member of the Nihil is Marcho Ro, Soule goes on to talk about this character, explaining:
“Marchion Ro holds an important post within the greater Nihil organization — he is the Eye of the Nihil, as was his father before him. He doesn’t give the orders — that’s up to the Tempest Runners — but in a very real way, everything revolves around him. The things that make the Nihil more than just a bunch of Outer Rim raiders all come from Marchion. He is also, in every sense, a bad guy. And it’s been fantastic building someone around which to focus the darker elements of our High Republic story.”
Daniel José Older, writer of IDW Publishing’s The High Republic Adventures series, went on to talk about the Nihil further, saying:
“The Nihil are truly unlike any villain we’ve seen in Star Wars before. I am really excited to go deep behind enemy lines in the IDW ongoing series and give readers a chance to learn about the inner workings of one of the most vicious, unyielding, and chaotic groups the galaxy has ever known.”
There are a lot of coll characters here and it’ll be fun to see how their stories play out in these upcoming Star Wars adventures.
Source: Star Wars