The title of the game characters from the movies, Star Wars Eclipse looks set to introduce a host of new characters and planets within its High Republic setting.
When creating the final three films of the Skywalker Saga, Disney opted to change the established timeline of the Expanded Universe. Material outside of the main films published before 2013 (apart from The Clone Wars) is now considered part of its own ‘Legends’ timeline, while the material released after the Lucasfilm acquisition is ‘canon’. Of course, canon material includes the nine movies of the Skywalker Saga, as well as Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story, as well as any novel or comic released after 2013. Certain video games, like Battlefront II and Jedi: Fallen Order, are part of the official Star Wars continuity, although the Knights of the Old Republic remake has re-opened the possibility for more Star Wars games set outside of canon. Disney is frequently bringing characters, vessels, and stories from Legends into canon material, so the appearance of the titular vessel in Eclipse is not impossible.
The Eclipse-class dreadnought was a model of Imperial Super Star Destroyer manufactured by Kuat Drive Yards, and in Legends, they were mainly in use around six years after the Battle of Endor, the climactic event of Return of the Jedi. These were behemoth vessels, large enough to be considered a space station, and were regarded as a new generation of Super Star Destroyers in this era. These jet-black battleships reached 17.5km in length, among the largest dreadnought-scale ships ever in Galactic history, and dwarfed only by the Vengeance-class and Executor-class dreadnoughts.
Star Wars Legends' Eclipse-class Dreadnoughts
Star Wars Eclipse won't release for three years at least, but if featured the Eclipse-class dreadnaughts would carry massive superweapons - an axial superlaser - capable of destroying other Super Star Destroyers or cracking a planet’s crust through their planetary shield, or even wiping out cities. This weapon was similar to the beams in the Death Star, though nowhere near as powerful, and the Eclipse-class dreadnought’s primary combat purpose was to destroy important enemy ships and space stations. This vessel was also armed with hundreds of turbolaser and heavy laser mounted turrets, as well as ion cannons and gravity well projectors, for disabling and pulling ships out of hyperspace.
Although the vessel does not appear in the timeline of Star Wars Eclipse begins decades before these events, in the High Republic era, which spans approximately 300 to 82 BBY.
Star Wars Legends Has Already Inspired Current Canon
Despite the discrepancy in of eras, Lucasfilm has incorporated multiple elements from Legends into the new canon, meaning there's a chance the dreadnoughts could be repurposed for Star Wars Eclipse. For instance, Grand iral Thrawn was initially the main antagonist in Timothy Zahn’s original trilogy, beginning with Heir to the Empire, which is largely responsible for kicking off the Star Wars Expanded Universe in the early 1990s. This trilogy showcased Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, and Han Solo's stories as they navigate the post-Return of the Jedi galaxy, with Thrawn featuring as a menacing new antagonist.
Then, Thrawn's new canon Star Wars origin was rewritten in Zahn’s newer trilogy, with the first book Thrawn released in 2017. Here, Thrawn was aligned with the Rebels timeline, and his life events were shifted to take place before A New Hope. In these books, Thrawn is the protagonist, and even pairs up with Anakin in the second book, Thrawn: Alliances. In both versions, Thrawn was a brilliant, ruthless tactician and officer of the Chiss Ascendancy, and ed the Imperial Navy as Grand iral following his exile from the Chiss.
How Legends May Inform Star Wars Eclipse
So, the character Grand iral Thrawn, an important figure of the Legends Expanded Universe, was successfully re-applied to the canon timeline; transferring from being a post-Return of the Jedi villain to a pre-A New Hope antagonist, and featuring in Disney XD’s animated series Star Wars Rebels. Therefore, it is possible that the Eclipse-class dreadnought could appear in the High Republic era Star Wars Eclipse despite featuring later on the Legends timeline.
Further, the Star Wars Eclipse trailer features prequel-era ships seen in the Skywalker Saga. A circular Trade Federation Lukrehulk is depicted amongst a battle, most notably seen previously in The Phantom Menace in orbit around Naboo, and a transport ship from Attack of the Clones can be spotted above a busy city, the same vessel that transported Anakin and Pe from Coruscant to Naboo. This may merely serve to illustrate that Eclipse takes closer toward the end of the High Republic than its beginning, but it's also proof that the various ships of Star Wars can move fluidly through different eras - as was the case with the X-Wings and TIE fighters seen in the sequels.
Overall, Eclipse’s High Republic setting is new and fairly uncharted territory in Disney’s Star Wars Canon, only being previously explored in a number of novels and comic books. It is, therefore, possible that Star Wars Eclipse will utilize material from Legends as well as canon. Another Legends aspect theorized to potentially appear in Star Wars Eclipse, alongside the titular Eclipse-class vessel, is the snowy planet pictured in the trailer with a huge, ominous tower, which may possibly be the planet Rhen Var, a location mentioned in Legends as the site of warring Sith and Jedi, and has not yet been seen before in canon.
