The stories of the Star Wars galaxy famously take place quite a long time ago, and the newest period being explored—the Era of the High Republic—depicts events that take place even longer ago, two centuries before the Galactic Civil War.
The High Republic is a multi-media crossover that includes books, comics, and other storytelling mediums. These stories will follow the Jedi at the height of their power, exploring a period fans have never seen before. This is a perfect chance to look at how some of the planets in the galaxy might have been different in times past. Fans will be excited as the story returns to some of their favorite locations, though of course, not every planet needs to be brought back.
10 Want To See: Alderaan
In Star Wars: A New Hope, the Death Star famously blew up Princess Leia’s planet of Alderaan. While some stories have addressed the trauma of this loss that Leia and other Alderaanian refugees feel, there has never been a chance to realty delve into the lore of the planet in the new canon.
The High Republic offers a chance to see the political structures, culture, and people of Alderaan, as well as the many geographic marvels and sprawling cities of the world.
9 Don’t: Jakku
There is very little to recommend Jakku. When Luke Skywalker learns that Rey had lived there, he dismisses the planet as a backwater world.
Jakku was really just an attempt to recreate the desert environment of Tatooine as a starting point in The Force Awakens so that Rey’s journey could replicate Luke’s in A New Hope. A nowhere backwater desert only has sand, more sand, and even more sand. This is not an interesting setting and simply a knock-off of Tatooine.
8 Want To See: Korriban/Moraband
The homeworld of the ancient Sith, Korriban—now known as Moraband—is a place with huge stone-carved ziggurat-like tombs to honor the greatest Sith Lords and where violent Sith hounds stalk the wastes.
As the Sith have gone into hiding during the thousand-year stretch since the rise of Darth Bane, there will be almost no presence of the Sith in The High Republic. However, they are not extinct, and Yoda does learn about the Rule of Two developed by Bane in secret, so there is a good chance that a few Jedi stumbled upon the Sith during this time.
7 Don’t: Cantonica
Cantonica is best known for Canto Bight, the coastal casino city that Finn and Rose visited in The Last Jedi. The gaudy rich excesses of the Vegas-inspired did not inspire a sense of wonder or make the planet seem like a place that would be fun to explore.
There are real possibilities of great things that could be done here. Exploring the roots of class striation and the enslavement of the Force-sensitive children would make for a far more interesting narrative than scenes in a casino, but that would require Disney to examine real-world issues about class struggle, wealth inequality, the root causes of slavery, and child labor—issues the company usually ignores, preferring stories with cartoonishly evil supervillains instead.
6 Want To See: Coruscant
As the capital world of the Galactic Republic, it seems inevitable that The High Republic will feature numerous scenes on Coruscant. While this world has been seen many times over, there is always something new lurking around every corner and in every back alley.
Considering that The High Republic is set in the past, this offers a chance to see the dramatic ways that technology, clothing, architecture, and the very nature of governing a republic have all changed.
5 Don’t: Tatooine
While Tatooine is one of the most important worlds in the Star Wars story, it is just a desert world full of sand and the people who carve out a living amid the sands. Plus fans have seen pretty much all there is to see on the planet.
Of course, there are other things of interest: Turkans, Jawas, and Krayt Dragons—all things that the Mandalorian just featured. Unless there is some major change or revelation about the planet, Tatooine has little to offer that has not been seen very recently. The High Republic should stay far far away from Tatooine.
4 Want To See: Lothal
The planet Lothal was first introduced in the TV show Star Wars: Rebels as the home of the young Padawan Ezra Bridger.
By the time of the Empire’s rise, this pastoral world was a fairly underdeveloped grassy planet. However, there were numerous ancient Jedi ruins on the planet, including a Jedi Temple with a painting of the gods of the planet Mortis. Loth-wolves are also Force-sensitive, so this makes the world central to the Jedi’s past and it would be cool to see what it used to be like.
3 Don’t: Hoth
The reason that the Rebels built their base on Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back is that this was a remote world with almost nothing on it.
The yeti-like Wampas of Hoth make for great potential enemies, but they are not quite captivating enough to justify taking a story to this out-of-the-way icy planet. So it is probably best that Hoth be avoided entirely.
2 Want To See: Tython
Fans of the original Star Wars Expanded Universe may recall that Tython is the planet that the Jedi originated from in the distant past. Before Disney changed the established history, Tython also housed the First Jedi Temple—which has since been retconned so the first one was the one on Ahch-To.
Whatever the history of Tython is in this new canon, there is so much that can be done with this world. It has appeared in The Mandalorian, the Doctor Aphra comics, and been briefly mentioned in the first issue of The High Republic comic, so it seems likely that the planet will appear.
1 Don’t: Malachor
The darkest tragedy to befall any world in the Star Wars galaxy was not the tragic destruction of Alderaan but was instead the Great Scourge of Malachor. The details of this event remain a mystery, but whatever happened, a Sith weapon reduced everyone on the planet to ash.
While the events on Malachor are worth exploring further at some point, the planet has only appeared a few times so far, and much of its appeal is the mystery surrounding it. There will be plenty of mysteries revealed in The High Republic, but leaving Malachor shrouded in secrecy will preserve its mystique and give fans something to look forward to in later stories.
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