New Details On 'Star Wars: Shadows Of The Sith' Revealed

And They Look Amazing!

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 4 min read

The Empire’s defeat and the death of the Emperor did not bring the peace Luke Skywalker so desired. Luke saw his father, Anakin Skywalker, find redemption before dying, leaving Luke saddened and remorseful. Five years later, Jedi Master Luke Skywalker would begin constructing his own Jedi temple to teach a new generation of Jedi. Little does Luke know that evil lurks on a dark and ashy planet. The dark side of the Force holds fast in the shadows as it did for millennia before the rise of Sidious, and now Sidious is about to rise again.

The official Star Wars website recently revealed new details on the upcoming book Star Wars: Shadows of the Sith written by Adam Christopher and a look at the final book cover. Shadows of the Sith follows Luke and his friend Lando Calrissian on a journey to the planet Exegol after Lando informs Luke of a new Sith menace. Also featured in Shadows of the Sith is the assassin Ochi of Bestoon, the one Sidious hired to kidnap Rey and murder her parents. From the description on StarWars.com, Shadows of the Sith contains some juicy parts waiting to be read.

Before Christopher was tapped to write Shadows of the Sith, he was initially asked to write a novel based on The Mandalorian, which was due to release in December 2020. It was then pushed back to November 2021. However, with the ever-changing Star Wars landscape, it eventually was canceled in March 2021 with a new novel in the works to replace it, which ended up being Shadows of the Sith. A significant reason for the switch in plans was likely due to Luke’s appearance in The Mandalorian and the happenings on Tython with Grogu perched upon the seeing stone.

In Shadows of the Sith, Luke’s quest takes him from the seeing stone on Tython to Exegol or from the light to the dark in Force terms. According to the excerpt on StarWars.com, Luke sees Exegol in a vision while sitting on the seeing stone. He had studied the ancient site but had never actually used the stone for its intended purpose, which was to commune directly with the Force. Much of Luke’s training has been masterless except for a few short lessons with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda. Luke had mainly relied on his own research when learning about the Force and what it means to be a Jedi. So if the seeing stone communes with the Force, does that mean it could somehow teach a Jedi how to commune with others once they become part of the Force? Is this how Qui-Gon learned how to communicate beyond the physical aspects of the Force? Perhaps this will be one of the theories explored in Shadows of the Sith. What does Luke hope to learn by visiting Exegol? It seems to only want to corrupt.

In his vision, Luke encounters a legion of the Sith Eternal who attack him in some sort of ritualistic dance. He is completely surrounded by the shadowy figures when a blue blade suddenly appears. The secret is out, folks. Luke will encounter a vision of Anakin Skywalker in Shadows of the Sith. If that is not what most Star Wars fans have been waiting for (one of them anyway), then I give up.

However, there are still many unknowns surrounding Shadows of the Sith. When does this book actually take place? The time between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens is a pretty wide range. Does Luke encounter the vision of Anakin before or after he decides to build his academy? Will Luke's experience affect his decision to train Ben Solo? Or is Luke’s goal just to learn as much as possible about the Force, which is probably a good idea anyway. With all this Force talk, Lando would appear out of place, but maybe we will learn more about Lando losing his daughter to the First Order. Ochie of Bestoon has been a prominent character in Greg Pak’s run of Darth Vader, so it will be interesting to see how his character has grown. In the comics, he comes off as a bit of a goof, which is not how he appeared in The Rise of Skywalker.

The cover of Shadows of the Sith is striking with Lando and Luke encountering a mysterious figure wielding a red-bladed lightsaber. As a Force junkie, this is my most anticipated book of the year, and despite being behind on Star Wars novels, Shadows of the Sith will shoot straight to the top of my list.

Check out Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith when it hits the shelves on June 28, 2022.

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