Star Wars' Genre Pivot Could Freshen the Franchise

Star Wars is getting a new publishing push from Lucasfilm Publishing, and this one moves away from the usual huge, interconnected saga. Instead, the company is steering tie-in novels toward genre stories, starting with the horror novel Hiding from the Dark. That matters because the franchise’s biggest problem, as the source puts it, is that recurring characters across projects can make Star Wars feel “small and repetitive.”

Random House will publish Hiding from the Dark on Sept. 1, with New York Times bestseller Kiersten White writing the book. White is the author of Hide and Lucy Undying, and Lucasfilm Publishing’s creative director Michael Siglain told Polygon that the goal is to give Star Wars “a fresh approach to storytelling.” For readers, that means the line is no longer selling the same galaxy-wide sprawl with a different coat of paint; it’s trying to make each story stand on its own first.

About Lucasfilm Publishing’s New Star Wars Push

Lucasfilm Publishing is the developer named in the source, and Random House is the publisher for Hiding from the Dark. The new initiative shifts Star Wars tie-in novels away from a huge, interconnected saga and toward genre stories, which is a smart correction after years of franchise sprawl. Siglain said the team is 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.”

That approach changes how these books should read on the page. Instead of asking every story to carry the weight of the whole mythology, Lucasfilm Publishing wants each one to hit a specific genre lane hard and cleanly. Siglain also said these are “genre stories first, Star Wars stories second,” and that they should appeal to both Star Wars fans and genre fans. That’s the right call if the goal is to stop the franchise from tripping over its own continuity every five minutes.