The High Republic Marvel Comic: Interview with Cavan Scott

The Star Wars franchise and Marvel comics have been a match made in the Force since the original 1970s-80s run and after the license returned to Marvel in 2015. As part of The High Republic, a new Marvel ongoing series was created—revealing an all-new era of storytelling that so far has only been explored in the publishing universe. For Cavan Scott, making the jump from his already vast Star Wars repertoire (Adventures in Wild Space, Star Wars Adventures, Dooku: Jedi Lost, Jedi Temple Challenge) to becoming a member of The High Republic initiative and writing his very first Marvel comic series has been a surreal experience.

“Star Wars Weekly (a reprint of the original run of the Marvel Star Wars comic in the UK) was my very first exposure to Star Wars, so it was definitely on my bucket list. I’m a Marvel fan at heart as well, so to write anything with the Marvel logo on the front is incredible. Also working on Star Wars, I couldn’t have asked for a better thing to do than launching an entire new era,” Scott shared in an interview with TatooineTimes.com.

Cavan Scott delved deeper into the comic book development process—beginning with the author’s script, a letter to the artist more than something meant for the final reader. “The team takes it and interprets it, and what I get coming back is something that yes, it’s similar to what I thought, but so much more every time.”

The High Republic was supposed to be released last year, but due to the global pandemic of COVID-19 the initiative was delayed, pushing back its launch date to January 2021. Despite a frustrating change in plans, Scott recognized the silver lining to the last year has been getting a wonderful art team for the series.

“From an art point of view, I couldn’t have asked for a better team … the creativity they’re pushing into it, the atmosphere they created on each page, and the amount of time and effort everyone has put into those pages it’s paying off,” Scott said. “Ario [Anindito]’s details in his pencils are so beautiful and add to that Mark [Morales]’ incredible inks … He doesn’t work digitally on this incidentally; it’s all brushwork. Those two artists work so well together. You then have Annalisa [Leoni]’s colors and Ariana [Maher]’s letters to enhance it all. The artists are the ones who are really leading the charge to what The Higher Republic looks like … it’s down to their imagination and their vision.”

Although The High Republic is a one of a kind initiative, its cross-publishing nature has certain similarities to Shadows of the Empire—a multimedia project created by Lucasfilm in 1996 that at the time was the closest thing to a movie since Return of the Jedi.

“Star Wars is a visual medium, so to see the artwork and these characters come to life … I can’t overemphasize how important that is for us as part of the creative process. Shadows of the Empire was mentioned obviously in our original planning sessions,” Scott recalled. “It was a hallmark of what you could do with something like Star Wars that perhaps isn’t possible with another franchise. Personally, that entire era I absolutely adored, and if we could do anything that’s all mentioned in the same breath, I’m a very happy man. Now the only thing I need to really complete it is a soundtrack album; the [Shadows of the Empire] soundtrack has gotten me through years of writing various things, Star Wars and non-Star Wars. I absolutely love it.”

The author shared his character development for The High Republic comic series’ protagonist Keeve Trennis, which was part of his original pitch. What makes Keeve so fascinating is her peculiar personality. She suffers from the imposter syndrome within the Jedi—her foul language is a way to cope with stressful situations.

“Her colorful vocabulary wasn’t actually a part of the character until I started writing issue one that came very much out of her. It’s the opposite of what you expect a Jedi to do. When she meets Avar Kriss and has that moment of saying exactly what she’s thinking … she knows what she’s doing and can’t stop. It’s a way of identifying with her because we all know what that moment feels like,” Scott said. “It’s humanizing her and the Jedi. I didn’t want them to be superheroes. I didn’t want them to be ideal all the time because no one is like that. And if you look at our great heroes in comics, they all have moments when they don’t always get it right. That’s something I definitely wanted to follow through with the Jedi of this era.”

From Phil Noto’s preliminary character concept art, the Trandoshan Jedi Master Sskeer was picked up by Scott and immediately became one of the most favorite characters within The High Republic. “I think with Sskeer there was obviously the excitement of seeing a Trandoshan Jedi … someone that you don’t expect to see. It’s that kind of surprise of seeing Worf in Starfleet uniform in Star Trek: The Next Generation for the first time,” Scott said. “I struggle within Star Wars fiction and its monocultures—all Trandoshans must be bad, all Hutts must be bad, and everyone from Alderaan was obviously good—because that’s not how reality works. And so when we play with a character like Sskeer, it forces people to consider what they expect from a character.”

“As people are reading the comic, they realize that Sskeer is turning out to be quite a complicated character. I think having a Trandoshan experiencing what he’s going through gave us an option to really in a way humanize him—although he’s not human but part of a species that we categorize as savage, bestial. Through him, we had the opportunity to take the Jedi in a different direction, especially when seeing him doing something quite radically un-Jedi, forcing you to question what being a Jedi actually is,” Scott added.

Scott revealed that Sskeer’s relationship with Keeve wasn’t originally there but was eventually developed after writing the first draft of issue one, which at the time was the story that is now within issue two. “I’m very glad we took that moment back and built their relationship,” Scott shared. “Seeing the response from people about their relationship from the very first pages that were released has been very satisfying. Hopefully it means that people will want to follow their journey, maybe get their heart broken a little bit along the way.”

Avar Kriss has so far been the best representation of the light side of the Force in The High Republic. Cavan Scott reflected upon the origins of her creation and her character development so far. “Creating Avar Kriss was interesting because both Charles [Soule] and I had two characters who were very similar … we basically merged them into Avar,” Scott said. “She is someone who is trying her hardest to be a beacon of light as much as the Beacon that she now marshals. I wanted to have that moment where you saw her be awarded the Beacon by none other than Master Yoda—briefly alluded to in Light of the Jedi—to show what that would mean to someone like Avar who doesn’t necessarily think she’s perfect but just doing the best she can. She never expected to get that station, nor did she ever want it. But she stepped up, and I think that’s what her character is about … she will always step up. Whether she would always get it right is another question, but she will always try,” Scott shared. “It’s gonna be interesting to see what her role is within the Jedi Order will be, because she’s not obviously on the Council, but she has a position that has a great deal of responsibility for that part of the galaxy. What happens when a Jedi who’s always trying her best has to try a little bit harder?”

The High Republic comic promises monsters, lots of monsters. As both Cavan Scott and artist Ario Anindito are horror fans, readers should expect lots of both bloody and psychological horror through the Drengir and beyond. “It is very rare for me to write any kind of Star Wars without there being a monster. My favorite movie is still Return of the Jedi because of the sheer amount of monsters and aliens in that film. We’re definitely gonna see more creatures and aliens of both sides, good and bad through the upcoming issues.”

The High Republic era has just begun. Begin your journey by picking up your copy of Marvel’s new ongoing series today and let us know about your favorite characters and moments via our social media platforms or with a comment below. Don’t forget to follow Cavan Scott on Twitter and Instagram for latest updates on his upcoming Star Wars projects, and if you are a horror fan, then make sure to check out his creator-owned comic series, Shadow Service!