Star Wars: The High Republic First Look At The New Villains
Star Wars: The High Republic unveiled a first look at the new villains joining the galaxy far, far away, and they're unsightly, to say the least. The multimedia initiative, designed to allow new voices a chance to explore untouched areas of the Star Wars universe, has been drip-feeding information to eager Star Wars fans since the pandemic delayed its start to 2021. The heroes of the High Republic have had their time in the news cycle already, but everyone knows it's the villains who really matter.
The Nihil, the High Republic's primary antagonists, have already been touched on, as has the ominous but unsurprisingly vague threat to the force itself presented in the traditional opening crawl of the series. However, it's spooky season, and the marketing team at Star Wars knows that meant it was high time to deliver the goods on the most monstrous of new threats to the Jedi Order.
The official Star Wars site released art and backstory for the High Republic era villains for their sort of Halloween special. The first-look includes Marchion Ro, four Nihil, and the hideous Drengir. Take a look at them below:
A lot is going on here, so we'll go one at a time. The first is Marchio Ro, The Eye of the murderous and semi-organized Nihil. Light of the Jedi writer Charles Soule described Ro as the "Eye of the Nihil, as was his father before him." The author also teased Ro as a guy who doesn't give the orders, but the organization does revolve around him in "a very real way."
The Nihil have been drawn out to be aggressive and thoroughly merciless marauders; they've been compared to space Vikings by writers. It's clear from the art that the Outer Rim's more organized threat encompasses at least a few races and that Marchion serves as a spiritual or symbolic leader, like the glue that holds the Tempests together.
The Drengir, on the other hand, have no structure. Like a Lovecraftian Swamp Thing, they are semi-amorphous plant creatures that apparently will communicate much like actual plants do, which is to say likely at a fundamental and single-minded level. According to writer Cavan Scott, “As the Jedi struggle to deal with the aftermath of the Great Disaster, a new creeping terror rises from the ground beneath their feet." That terror is, in fact, the Drengir, who perhaps literally rise from the ground after being awakened by whatever The Great Disaster turns out to be, not unlike the Locust from Gears of War.
Whatever the case, these villains are imposing and open the writers to tackle some serious Star Wars horror. New ideas about how the force works appear to be present in these upcoming stories, and there's quite literally infinite potential when it comes to space itself. The High Republic is taking some very advisable first steps in the new directions it claims to explore. Its January release can't come fast enough.
Source: Star Wars.com