Star Wars’ pivot to new genres is great for the franchise

A new horror novel, Hiding from the Dark, is the latest spin on Star Wars' new direction

One of the biggest criticisms that's followed Star Wars is that even though it’s set in such an expansive galaxy, all the recurring characters across projects make the franchise feel small and repetitive. Lucasfilm Publishing has taken that criticism to heart, revealing a new initiative that shifts Star Wars tie-in novels away from a huge, interconnected saga and toward something different: genre stories.

The initiative’s next project is Hiding from the Dark, a Star Wars horror novel by New York Times bestseller Kiersten White, author of Hide and Lucy Undying. Lucasfilm Publishing's creative director Michael Siglain exclusively revealed to Polygon that he wants the new genre initiative to introduce a fresh approach to storytelling in Star Wars.

"Lucasfilm Publishing and our partners are taking the various genre building blocks of Star Wars — fantasy stories, samurai stories, war stories, etc. — and are focusing on those elements in very specific and deliberate ways," Siglain says. "These are genre stories first, Star Wars stories second, and we hope that these will appeal to both Star Wars fans and genre fans."

The idea of Star Wars stories focusing more on the genre instead of the overall background of a galaxy far, far away may sound like sacrilege at first. How can something be a Star Wars story if the IP and its history aren’t at the forefront? To that I say, look at Andor and Skeleton Crew.

Some people argue over whether Andor is or isn’t “real Star Wars,” because it doesn’t follow previous movies’ codes, or explore the themes of the Force and the Jedi/Sith conflict. Even when praising Andor, commenters will disregard previous TV shows and films in the franchise, claiming it doesn’t “feel” like Star Wars.

Yet, while Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy has made it clear several times that he doesn’t care much for the Star Wars universe as a whole, Andor still fits into the Star Wars frachise in the same way Gareth Edwards' 2016 film Rogue One did. While both Rogue One and Andor are gritty spy-thriller or war stories first and sci-fi second, the world of Star Wars is undoubtedly still there. Andor and Rogue One follow scrappy, underdog rebels as they do everything they can to resist the authoritarian regime of the Galactic Empire. That’s pretty much what fuels the entire original movie trilogy.

Then there’s Skeleton Crew, an eight-episode coming-of-age drama that showrunner Jon Watts pitched to then-Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy as a Star Wars series inspired by the 1985 Amblin film The Goonies. While Star Wars has had child characters before, notably young Anakin Skywalker in 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace and Grogu in The Mandalorian, Skeleton Crew’s main focus is a story about kids. In Skeleton Crew, the world of Jedi, Sith, politics, space battles, and pirates serves as the backdrop for a story about a group of kids growing up in a galaxy far, far away.

Ultimately, Andor, Rogue One, and Skeleton Crew work because they shake up what Star Wars is typically known for. They offer something different, aiming at a fandom outside the regular Star Wars loyalists. That’s the beauty of Star Wars: Its galaxy is vast. Even if you’re not a fan of one era or trilogy, there’s still something to love somewhere else.

Lucasfilm Publishing’s new genre initiatives are opening doors for people who may never have considered themselves Star Wars fans. Projects like Andor or Hiding from the Dark let new audiences dip their toes into this massive universe for the first time. New fans are what keep a franchise going. There will always be a risk of alienating other fans in the process, but anything that lets a franchise tell fresh, unique stories rather than repeating the same old ones is worth the risk.

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Random House will publish Kiersten White's Hiding from the Dark on Sept. 1.