Within the Star Wars universe, “The Old Republic” is a term that refers to a period of time set between 3956 and 3630 years before the Battle of Yavin (as seen in 1977’s Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope). It is also part of what fans refer to as “Legends” continuity, which means that it is part of the Star Wars canon that was declared non-canon after Disney purchased all the rights to the Star Wars property in 2012.
The term was first introduced to the world with the release of the 2003 original Xbox video game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, developed by BioWare, and is subsequently the game that put BioWare on the map. Since then, the game has spawned two official sequels in the forms of the original Xbox game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic II – The Sith Lords, developed by Obsidian Entertainment in 2004, and the MMO Star Wars: The Old Republic, developed again by BioWare in 2011, as well as numerous novel and comic book spin-offs. It was also confirmed in September 2021 that a remake of the original 2003 classic is currently in development by Aspyr Media, Inc. and will be a timed exclusive for PlayStation 5 before eventually moving on to other platforms.
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With so much love and demand for new Star Wars-related content, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise that Disney and Lucasfilm may be working on an entirely new trilogy of movies set in “The Old Republic” time period. While nothing has been officially confirmed yet, leaks and rumors from various sources have all hinted at the strong possibility that an Old Republic trilogy is being developed.
While the prospect of more Star Wars movies is by no stretch of the imagination a bad thing, using “The Old Republic” as a setting could be something of a radical departure for casual fans of the Star Wars movies as, both visually and thematically, it is very different from the rest of the Star Wars canon. It is also worth noting that because this period of Star Wars history is set thousands of years before the events of 1999’s Star Wars: Episode I -The Phantom Menace, none of the familiar characters or concepts will be present in any form, meaning that almost everything is going to be new to some degree.
Updated August 10, 2022: If you love Star Wars, you’ll happy to know we’ve updated this article with additional content.
What Would an Old Republic Trilogy Be About?
Lucasfilm
True to the movie trilogies, each game in the Old Republic series stars a brand new main character and a new cast of supporting characters and villains. Not only that, but the most recent game of the series, Star Wars: The Old Republic, is an MMO with multiple expansions, the most recent of which came out in February 2022. This means there is an absolute cornucopia of source material that Disney and Lucasfilm can take inspiration from when crafting a story for a movie trilogy. With the newly established Disney canon, anything is possible. While there is a wealth of material to work with, however, the vast majority of The Old Republic’s story can be tied back to the actions of one man, the Jedi knight known as Revan. With this in mind, it is very, very likely that if an Old Republic trilogy is in the works, it will focus primarily on the story of Revan.
Fans of the original classic Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic will know Revan as the Jedi knight who led the Jedi order in the fight against the Mandalorians in The Mandalorian Wars — the one that all the Mandalorian characters keep referencing in Clone Wars, Rebels, and The Mandalorian. Eventually, Revan fell to the dark side and became the Sith Lord Darth Revan before redeeming and rediscovering the light. So already, with that description, there is a lot of story potential for just one character.
While the current popularity of Mandalorian characters in Star Wars presents the strong possibility of telling the story of The Mandalorian Wars, the far more likely story that Disney and Lucasfilm will tell are of the events of the Jedi Civil War and Revan’s redemption. The reason for this is that those are the events covered in the actual game Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic and, as such, is the story that everybody knows and most likely will want to see. After all, the continued popularity of Star Wars is proof that people like what’s familiar.
Will We Ever See an Old Republic Movie Trilogy?
Disney / Lucasfilm
Realistically speaking, with all the current Star Wars-related projects in the works right now, for both Disney+ and the big screen, if an Old Republic trilogy is in the works, we might not see or hear anything of it until quite a few years from now. At one time, Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss were tapped to spearhead a new Star Wars trilogy following the end of the hit HBO series. Sadly, this never came to be as the two had their hands full with various Netflix projects and were forced to walk away from their deal with Lucasfilm. There were rumors that their films would have been set a few hundred years before The Phantom Menace in the time of the Old Republic. If this were true, then their source of inspiration may have been the Knights of the Old Republic video game. Unfortunately, fans may never know what the creative minds behind one of the biggest series in TV history may have planned.
More recently, Disney announced a new anthology series titled Tales of the Jedi, which will be a six-episode series following Count Dooku before his turn to the Dark Side and fan favorite Ahsoka Tano, before joining the Jedi Order and after leaving it. Fans had gotten their hopes up that they may finally be seeing material from the Old Republic. The series name is the same as an anthology comic series focusing on various Jedi of the Old Republic era. Yet again, fans’ hopes were crushed when it was revealed the show would revolve around prequel-originating characters.
Fans’ prayers may finally be answered to some degree as the upcoming series The Acolyte will take a step into the older era. The show will be a thriller-mystery set an entire century before The Phantom Menace and is said to be influenced by martial arts films. Wuxia Films, Shaw Brothers, and King Fu in particular. The types of films that showrunner Leslye Headland will be taking her inspiration from were stories about personal journeys that were not so vast. With this in mind, The Acolyte will be more self-contained. Cinemablend describes the show as an exploration of a time that has never been explored on camera before, looking at political, personal, and spiritual aspects from an unknown time. While plot details are being closely guarded, the show is said to be taking place in the era known as the High Republic, an age of prosperity that began after the Jedi had vanquished the Sith, allowing the light to thrive. The series will explore key points in this age that would eventually see a fall back into darkness.
Again, these are only rumors. It may not be the Old Republic, and it may not be a new movie trilogy, but it is a new era beyond the Skywalker saga. It’s a time full of story-telling potential and a new beginning for fans to explore. Even if the series explores only one season, like most Star Wars properties, it may open possibilities for many other new stories to explore. The series is currently casting, and production is said to begin in late 2022 or early 2023. Still, those wishing for an Old Republic trilogy sooner rather than later are going to have to take a cue from the Jedi themselves and exercise patience. Good things, after all, come to those who wait.
