Cavan Scott Interview + Star Wars SDCC Panel Recap
Star Wars: Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away reveals and more.
The Star Wars: Stories from a Galaxy Far, Far Away publishing panel revealed a number of Star Wars books, comics and more releasing over the next year. Here’s a full recap of what we learned.
(Read past that if you want to check out my interview with High Republic author Cavan Scott, possibly the coolest thing I’ve done so far this year, totally not a huge deal.)
Star Wars: The Acolyte - Kelnacca #1
WRITTEN BY: Cavan Scott
PUBLISHED BY: Marvel
RELEASE DATE: September 4, 2024
SUMMARY: This one-shot comic will dive into the history of Wookiee Jedi Kelnacca, as seen in Star Wars: The Acolyte. The release will also include an exclusive interview with Kelnacca actor Joonas Suotamo.
The Art of Star Wars: The High Republic (Volume II)
WRITTEN BY: Kristin Baver
PUBLISHED BY: Abrams
RELEASE DATE: February 2025
SUMMARY: The book offers a look behind the scenes of The High Republic Phase 2 and 3 with concept art, sketches, and designs of the series’ characters, costumes, creatures, and vehicles.
Star Wars: The High Republic - Fear of the Jedi #1
WRITTEN BY: Cavan Scott
PUBLISHED BY: Marvel
RELEASE DATE: February 2025
SUMMARY: As the final arc in the ongoing story of The High Republic, this comic features Jedi Master Keeve Trennis as she embarks upon a life-changing journey. Jedi Master Kelnacca also makes an appearance.
Star Wars: The Acolyte - Visual Guide
WRITTEN BY: Pablo Hidalgo
PUBLISHED BY: DK
RELEASE DATE: March 4, 2025
SUMMARY: Pablo Hidalgo takes on the feat of detailing the key characters, locations, and other elements of The Acolyte series, accompanied by the stunning visuals these DK titles are known for.
Star Wars: The Acolyte: Wayseeker
WRITTEN BY: Justina Ireland
PUBLISHED BY: Random House Worlds
RELEASE DATE: May 6, 2025
SUMMARY: Wayseeker Vernestra Rwoh returns in an adult novel by Justina Ireland, approached by Jedi Master Indara after a decade away from the Jedi to ask for her immediate aid.
The Art of Star Wars: Outlaws
PUBLISHED BY: Dark Horse
RELEASE DATE: June 3, 2025
SUMMARY: In celebration of the upcoming open-world Star Wars adventure game, this art book features concept art and creator commentary surrounding the game and the worldbuilding that ties it all together.
Star Wars: The Black Series - Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh
Not a book, but book-adjacent! Jedi Master Vernestra Rwoh will finally be collectable as a Black Series figure in Spring 2025. She goes on sale on July 27.
Star Wars: The Acolyte - Untitled YA Novel
WRITTEN BY: Tessa Gratton
PUBLISHED BY: Disney Lucasfilm Press
RELEASE DATE: July 29, 2025
SUMMARY: Yord Horde, assemble! Padawans Jecki and Yord are forced to team up to keep everyone (and each other) safe.
The Art of Star Wars: The Acolyte (Season 1)
WRITTEN BY: Kristin Baver
PUBLISHED BY: Abrams
RELEASE DATE: Summer 2025
SUMMARY: Celebrating Season 1 of The Acolyte, this art book will provide a behind-the-scenes look at designs and storyboards used to bring the Disney+ show to life.
Cavan Scott Interview
If you’ve heard of Star Wars comics, you’ve heard of Cavan Scott. The author has written for a variety of mediums across the Star Wars universe since his entry into the chaos with Star Wars: Adventures in Wild Space in 2016.
Scott has been a dream one-on-one interview of mine since we briefly met at a press junket in 2022. When Disney offered me the opportunity to ask him (almost) anything I wanted in a 25-minute timespan, I couldn’t say no.
He began his Star Wars journey with comics — his parents thought he might be too scared to watch the film, but he fell in love with the universe thanks to a green space rabbit named Jaxxon.
(Little did he know that his mention of the Lepi at the start of our chat was only setting him up for my final question 20 minutes later.)
Scott never dreamed of writing for Star Wars one day — no one at that time really did. “I would love to go back and tell my younger self,” he said about his current work. “Back then it was just George Lucas writing Star Wars. None of us [Star Wars authors] ever thought this was even possible.”
Until it was.
Scott has written comics, books, audio dramas, and even worked on Young Jedi Adventures. Writing in different storytelling mediums throughout different points in the Star Wars universe isn’t easy, but it’s exceptionally rewarding.
“It keeps you engaged,” he told me. “Every medium is different. It’s exciting.” But the most challenging aspect of it, of course, is keeping everything fresh. When Cavan Scott writes a comic, his stamp is all over every page. But he still has to tell a story that feels new and thrilling, even when it’s set in a universe that has been around since the late 1970s.
But that’s something he actually loves about writing in The High Republic. Take his work on the upcoming Kelnacca one-shot, for example.
“The nice thing about Wookiees is they live a long time,” he said. This allowed him to take a character we met in a Disney+ show and place him all the way back on Starlight Beacon. We’ve been there before, but not with this particular character. “He’s a different Wookiee than Burryaga.”
Writing in The High Republic, compared to the many other eras he has told stories in as an author so far, is unique. The High Republic is Star Wars, but it feels new — especially as one of the writers lucky enough to shape the era when none before him had. There were still guideposts, but Scott felt he and his fellow authors had more room to test boundaries.
“It’s the freedom to explore new things, try new things, make Star Wars bigger,” he said when I asked what it feels like to be on such a one-of-a-kind publishing team. There have been book series similar to this before, but nothing quite like this.
I could have kept asking Scott questions for hours, but at this point I had five minutes left and had been holding on to what I described to him as “the most important question he’s ever been asked.”
“Hit me with it,” he said, fully on board for the imminent chaos I was about to unleash.
I, of course, asked him the following: If he could insert Jaxxon into any Star Wars movie, where would he put him, and why?
Cavan Scott, likely dreading the very long days of travel and convention activities ahead of him, seemed to completely forget about the real world for a brief moment as he imagined being able to get away with putting even more Jaxxon into Star Wars than he already has.
I am not good at many things, but I do know how to ask a good closing interview question.
“Well, I’ve already done it!” Referring, of course, to the time the A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back editors let him write “Fake It Till You Make It,” in which Jaxxon is confirmed to have been present during at least one event of the adjacent movie.
At least he acknowledged this was mostly a cheat answer and went on to talk about his favorite Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi. Jaxxon could very well have been there. But Scott is much more interested in Jaxxon’s whereabouts after that.
“Where is Old Man Jaxxon during the Sequel Trilogy? That’s what I want to know,” he said.
I take my interviews very seriously. This is a serious business.
I’m so grateful to be here, asking authors the important questions and allowing them the chance to dream.
Now This Is Lit is a podcast (and newsletter!) about Star Wars books, the people who make them, and the readers who just can’t get enough of them. You can find the show wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe to the Substack for more deep dives, guides, interview transcripts, and book love.
Amazing publishing news and an amazing interview!