Now that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker has been released, the Skywalker saga has been wrapped up and it’s time for a new direction in the Star Wars universe. A lot of plans for the future of the franchise have come and gone, but now new reports suggest that the next chapter could begin with a new game and expand into the films from there.

According to rumor, a new Star Wars game is set to be released next year and that game will kickstart Project Luminous, an interconnected multimedia project that Disney announced back at New York Comic-con 2019. Project Luminous is supposedly set 400 years before the Skywalker Saga, putting it firmly in “The High Republic” era.

“The Force is what gives a Jedi his power. It’s an energy field created by all living things. Until… PROJECT LUMINOUS, 2020.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YdgmH9Vv2-I

That tagline suggests that we’ll learn much more about the project this year, but if the rumors are true, everything won’t be kicked into gear until next year when the unannounced game arrives. This goes against prior reports that Project Luminous would get its start with novels, but pretty much nothing is confirmed at this point, so everyone is just throwing things at the wall to see what sticks.

This era of Star Wars is what the Game of Thrones showrunners were going to dabble in before they backed out of the future movies. For reference, this would take place roughly 3,000 years after the Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO and 3,500 years after Knights of the Old Republic. Star Wars has a long, eventful timeline, so there’s plenty of story ideas to explore and plenty of room to work in new content.

Star Wars has always stretched through multiple media, most notably novels, of which there are nearly 400 published if you count the non-canon expanded universe. There are also countless video games and television shows, not to mention a total of eleven movies now (an even dozen if you count the Star Wars Holiday Special, which you absolutely should).

Star Wars is a massive property, one fans can’t get enough of, so it’s easy to say more is better. On the other hand, if this rumored game is going to heavily tie into the movies, it presents a major downside for movie fans that don’t play video games. Fans shouldn’t have to experience every piece of content in every media to be able to follow the story.