For a franchise that began with desert monks, family trauma, and a man in black breathing like a broken vacuum cleaner, Star Wars took its sweet time getting openly LGBTQ+ characters onto the page and screen. For years, the galaxy far, far away was full of subtext, coding, and “well, if you squint at this interview from 1983…” energy. But canon eventually stopped being coy. Comics, novels, games, and live-action series started putting queer characters front and center — not as trivia, not as a wink, but as actual people with actual relationships, desires, identities, and messy lives. Which, honestly, is the most Star Wars thing possible. Nobody in this franchise gets to be uncomplicated. A quick note before we jump to hyperspace: this article focuses on confirmed canon LGBTQ+ characters, not fan readings, not “maybe implied,” and not every background extra who appeared in one panel of a comic…
The High Republic
The High Republic Returns to Comics With a Brand-New Mystery
The High Republic is not done yet. A new Dark Horse miniseries, Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures – Pathfinders, launches this week and sends a fresh team of Republic Pathfinders into the far edges of the galaxy to investigate the death of a Jedi Master. Lucasfilm first revealed the project at New York Comic Con last year, confirming that writer George Mann is leading the series alongside artists Partha Pratim, Jagdish Kumar, Michael Atiyeh, and Comicraft. A New High Republic Story, Set After Phase II What makes Pathfinders interesting is where it sits in the timeline. Lucasfilm says the story takes place about 20 years after Phase II, which gives it room to explore a different corner of the era instead of just replaying familiar beats. The official setup follows a brand-new Pathfinder team dispatched to a distant region to investigate the strange death of a Jedi Master, with…