‘Star Wars: Bloodline’ Will Reveal Leia's Pre-'Force Awakens' Backstory
The newest Expanded Universe novel hints at the political turmoil that led to the new movie.
Back in April of 2014, Disney effectively did away with decades of the far reaching and overly complicated Star Wars Expanded Universe with a post on the official Star Wars website. They paid $4 billion and they figured they’d take a crack at the Expanded Universe on their own terms. Now a new novel called Star Wars: Bloodline will seek to fill in the gaps to show how Princess Leia became General Leia in the New Republic before the events of The Force Awakens.
Positioned as a follow up to the previous new Star Wars novel called Aftermath, the new novel will stress the Skywalker family. “This novel isn’t fundamentally about Leia as a wife, sister, or mom,” the novel’s author, Claudia Gray, told USA Today. “This is about the role she’s created for herself since the fall of the Empire, and the one she takes up by the time of The Force Awakens.”
USA Today also included an excerpt from Star Wars: Bloodline where Leia attends a seemingly mundane meeting that’s actually important to the galaxy’s future. The short excerpt, which you can read here, is just a hint of how the Resistance became a small faction that found itself fighting The First Order in director J.J. Abrams’ record breaking movie.
The cover art for 'Bloodline,' featuring the silhouette of Darth Vader looking in the background.
Here’s some of the more interesting passages:
“An entire generation has prospered during an era of peace. The New Republic, governed by the Galactic Senate on Hosnian Prime, has held power for more than two decades. Yet conflict has begun to take shape within the Senate. As political gridlock threatens to cripple the fledgling democracy, the quarrels of the New Republic will soon radiate throughout the galaxy. . .”
“The conference building of the New Republic senatorial complex contained multiple rooms appropriate for every kind of auxiliary function imaginable, from memorial concerts to awards ceremonies. Leia Organa and Tai-Lin Garr headed toward one of the smallest banquet rooms. The breakfast meeting had been organized by Varish Vicly, who couldn’t imagine a bad time for a party.”
“Leia settled into her chair, picked up her napkin — and stopped.”
“Something was written on the paper streamer on her plate. Actual writing. Virtually nobody wrote any longer; it had been years since Leia had seen actual words handwritten in ink on anything but historical documents.”
“But today, someone had left this message on her plate, only one word long: RUN.”
Run to check out Star Wars: Bloodline when it hits bookshelves May 3.
