Lucasfilm’s Latest Star Wars Story Catches Fans By Surprise

Key Takeaways

• Star Wars unexpectedly released “Padawan’s Pride” audiobook, exploring Obi-Wan and Anakin’s adventures after Episode I.
• Disney aims to promote Star Wars content through Audible due to potential reduction in TV show production.
• While “Padawan’s Pride” may be a good step, fans argue for fresh perspectives apart from the prequel era.

Star Wars just gave two of its biggest fan-favorites the exact sort of character-centric storytelling treatment that many fans have been clamoring to see brought to the fore of the franchise, and pretty much no one knew about it until it actually released.

Star Wars might have started off on the big screen with the original trilogy, but it has since grown to be a proper multimedia empire. While some of that shine was lost when Disney chucked a good portion of the franchise’s more varied works into the rancor pit that is the Legends continuity, the company has since built the brand back up via video games, comic books, novelizations, original stories, and more. Most notable is the push for more TV-style content on Disney+, which has seen some very impressive success with throwback projects like the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries and forward-thinking shows like Andor, with some promising projects like Skeleton Crew looking to change up the formula going forward.

While longtime Star Wars fan favorite Ewan McGregor recently made a case for another season of Obi-Wan Kenobi by pointing out the large gap in time that could be filled between the prequels and the original trilogy, one recent Star Wars project surprisingly goes even further back to yet another underexplored era of the franchise. While there was no real promotion leading up to it, an audiobook project titled Star Wars: Padawan’s Pride was released on Audible and tells an interesting story set a few years after Obi-Wan Kenobi takes on Anakin as his padawan. This project came as a surprise to fans, with most people that know about it only really having the synopsis provided to tell them what it’s all about.

Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi and his Padawan Anakin Skywalker star in this thrilling galactic adventure set three years after the events of
Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
. When a Republic spy goes missing on the Moons of Varl, the Jedi Council asks Obi-Wan and Anakin to infiltrate an underground podracing circuit run by a crime boss believed to be holding the spy prisoner. With Anakin posing as a hotshot racer and Obi-Wan as his attendant, tensions between the two threaten to run even higher than usual. But when Obi-Wan is forced to leave Varl, Anakin is on his own as he faces a series of increasingly treacherous races that will determine his fate—and that of the spy. Master and apprentice must use all their Jedi skills in this action-packed tale of cutthroat competition, deadly deception, and, ultimately, what it means to be a Padawan.

In addition to the new addition, some fans might be further surprised to find out there’s already a plethora of Star Wars content on Audible. It’s been rumored that the Star Wars franchise will cut down TV show production to align with Disney’s new attitude towards its Disney+ platform and the general perception that its IPs have been skewed more towards quantity than quality lately. With a potential output of just one show a year and multiple years between big-budget films, it would be a smart idea to get fans into other mediums that could be produced both outside the main studio system and off of DIsney+. Audiobooks might be more palatable to a casual modern audience than comics or novels, which are a bit more prevalent now. However, there’s absolutely no way that the franchise will be able to properly serve fans in this vein without some sort of promotion. Padawan’s Pride could be a great addition to the franchise, but it won’t really be seen as such if no one knows about it.

While Star Wars: Padawan’s Pride could potentially be a solid first step in exploring one of the more interesting and oft-unexplored time periods in the franchise, there’s also a solid case to be made that the Star Wars prequel era needs to be left alone in pursuit of new, unique perspectives and projects that are distinct from what has already been done. While there have been misses in the form of The Acolyte, other projects like Andor prove that there’s still a lot to cover elsewhere within the franchise. An audiobook series could certainly carry on the work started here, but the mainline Star Wars franchise is certainly poised to go elsewhere.

Star Wars: Padawan’s Pride is available to listen to on Audible.

Source: Audible