Star Wars: The High Republic may have been delayed, but new details continue to trickle out, including a first look at a new lightsaber that truly leans into the "knight" aspect of Jedi Knight.
The new lightsaber belongs to Jedi Master Stellan Gios, with an image courtesy of Insight Editions' The Lightsaber Collection. The hilt features tuning fork-like tines by the emitter that folds down and help create a crossguard when the weapon is ignited.
"With the High Republic, we wanted to implement a more traditional crossguard, but I still wanted to include the saber-blade into the crossguard design, so that Stellan would be able to defend himself against saber attacks. That’s where Excalibur came into play," Disney Publishing Illustration Manager Jeff R. Thomas told StarWars.com. "What would a lightsaber version of Excalibur look like? I started sketching and came up with a silhouette I really liked, but the practicality of holstering/sheathing it nagged at me until I had the idea that the crossguard didn’t have to be stationary. Perhaps it could activate or deactivate with the saber. So after some more sketches and some back and forth with Lucasfilm, it was decided that the crossguard would activate as opposed to always being open, which would give the saber the slimmer silhouette while holstered and would lend itself to some great visuals when activating."
Star Wars: The High Republic begins Jan. 5 with Star Wars: The High Republic -- Light of the Jedi, by Charles Soule.