“Should we contact the New Republic?” Snap Wexley
“We need to be smarter than that.” General Leia Organa
The Force Awakens, 2015, deleted scene
Hold up, what’s wrong with the New Republic? With the release of The Force Awakens in 2015, the average viewer had no idea what that background was. And after two more films to round out the trilogy, we’re still left wondering more about the New Republic.
There were a few novels that came out prior to the release of TFA, all part of a “Road to The Force Awakens” series. These books gave a small understanding of some things that bridged Episodes VI and VII. But in typical Star Wars film fashion we’re thrown right into the story without much background.
Now, this might sound like a plea for more information about Hosnian Prime, the capital of the New Republic, and that’s exactly what this is. Hosnian Prime is the featured planet in TFA that was blown up by the First Order, and really sets off their war with the rest of the galaxy. Our information is pretty slim still about Hosnian Prime, our only clear thing we know is it was home to the new Galactic Senate. Hosnian Prime did appear heavily in Bloodlines, a scene in Last Shot, and a mission in Squadrons. But that’s all that we have so far.
We really don’t know anything about this New Republic Era.
Everything that is post-Empire in the Star Wars timeline falls under that New Republic Era. It’s also been tagged as the Cold War era, even though the Galaxy is at peace the First Order is rising and the New Republic is barely getting off the ground. This timeline then includes everything, minus the flashbacks of course, in The Mandalorian. The show has been laying down some foundation for this era giving us warlords like Moff Gideon, the Imperial Remnant troopers, and of course New Republic X-Wing pilots. With the main focus on Din Djarin and The Child however, we haven’t yet gotten a greater grasp on the state of the universe, just those little hints mentioned before.
With season 2 of The Mandalorian upon us, we’re really hoping for more information on the broader universe. What’s going on in the founding years of the New Republic? What’s going to be the definitive amount of time that the Imperial Remnants keep fighting, as if the Empire is still the one in control? Are we regressing back into the EU legends of when the Empire fought for fourteen additional years after the battle of Endor, making Endor seem like a tiny achievement? Or are we going to acknowledge the Battle of Jakku as the last battle, and build from that story line which would give us a path right into connecting it to the sequel trilogy.
What are you thinking Dave and John? Are you thinking for the entire universe or thinking on just bringing back a couple characters as some easter eggs? Think carefully.
Look, adding in ties to the sequel trilogy will really put it into perspective for a lot of casual fans.
How are they going to link The Mandalorian with the Sequel Trilogy? The timeline is there, and ready to overlap. Fan favorite Ben Solo is already alive at this point in the timeline. Fans who are totally immersed into the Star Wars universe for the most part know the timeline of all the media, but to a lot of casual viewers it can get confusing. The way The Mandalorian is shown, it seems like it’s during Empire times. But it’s not. For the sake of the average viewer, give us a little more background on the New Republic and really interconnect these stories like an expanded universe of stories should.
