Earlier this month, Disney announced a whole new batch of Star Wars projects, including two new TV shows which are planned to eventually tie into The Mandalorian – Star Wars: Ahsoka, and Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic.
Not much has been revealed about the plots of these upcoming projects, but it is known that Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic will take place after the events of Episode 6 and before the events of Episode 7, during the same time period as The Mandalorian. However, if Disney plans to massively expand the non-movie side of the Star Wars franchise, the basis for the new TV show could also provide the basis for a new spin-off installment in BioWare’s Knights of the Old Republic series of RPGs.
New Star Wars Stories
In one sense, the new Star Wars stories will struggle to directly tie into the events of Knights of the Old Republic. Not only did the events of KOTOR take place thousands of years before the events of The Mandalorian, but they were never officially part of Star Wars canon. The Star Wars EU was made non-canon before the new trilogy, which also hints that it’s unlikely that Disney will turn to KOTOR timeline instead of its own new stories.
However, the premise of TV shows like Star Wars: Rangers of the New Republic could also be a great premise for a new Star Wars RPG from BioWare. The conclusion of the Star Wars sequel trilogy was controversial to say the least – many fans felt it focused too much on the Skywalker family despite a galaxy of characters to choose from. Since then, Star Wars has found success focusing on the smaller stories that take place around and between the major events in the movies.
This began in the movies with Rogue One but has found real success with The Mandalorian TV show. While giant galaxy-wide stakes like those in the movies have proved exhausting, the smaller stories which take place in the peripheries have proved increasingly popular.
Rangers of the New Republic will likely focus on characters attempting to rebuild the Republic after the fall of the Empire. As The Mandalorian shows, the galaxy is still filled with Imperial remnants, and Rangers of the New Republic will likely help show the transition that took place between episodes 6 and 7.
A new Star Wars BioWare RPG that takes place near the events of the movies but within an unexplored time like Rangers of the New Republic could be a huge success. It could help move Star Wars away from some of the tropes that have bogged down the movies, focusing on characters without Force powers and helping to tell more intimate stories than the sweeping epic stakes of the main saga often allows.
This could be one of the most immersive ways into the Star Wars universe, allowing players to explore what it’s like to be a relatively normal person in that galaxy while far larger forces battle it out. Hopefully, Disney’s increased interest in non-movie Star Wars media will lead to more discussions about Star Wars RPGs in the future.
No Knights of the Old Republic games are currently known to be in development.