5 Things I Want From Star Wars: Catalyst

Star Wars: Catalyst by James Luceno is in fine bookstores today!

I have not had the fortune to read it yet. The book has been kept top secret due to its prequel connection to “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story,” which comes to movie theaters December 16. I will be reading Catalyst beginning later today, in preparation for the movie. Because let’s face it. Disney and Lucasfilm did a fine job with “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” — despite some minor quibbles I had with the film — and I am hoping that director Gareth Edwards has delivered a bold new chapter in the franchise.

I have come to respect how J.J. Abrams approached “The Force Awakens.” Take the familiar and give it just enough innovation to make it appealing. I don’t think Disney can stop with that approach for “Rogue One.” Darth Vader will be the familiar in this movie. Mon Mothma and Bail Organa will be familiar as well. But Star Wars fans require the very best of every movie scene and that means the other characters must feel real and be complex.

A novel can help with that. There are some things I’d love to see featured in the prequel Star Wars: Catalyst by James Luceno that will make my next Star Wars movie-going experience more enjoyable.

Here are my top 5:

5. THE ORIGINS OF THE DEATH STAR

Sure, “A New Hope” and “Return of the Jedi” featured the interiors of two different Death Stars. We saw the plans for it in “Attack of the Clones” and the initial skeletal structure of it at the end of “Revenge of the Sith.” But how does the Death Star get its planet-destroying superlaser? Who actually built the moon-sized weapon? How did they keep the building of the Death Star so secret from the rest of the universe? I have no doubt there will be plenty of conversations between Orson Krennic and scientist Galen Erso in Catalyst to at least answer some of those questions.

4. A TORTURED GALEN ERSO

Galen Erso is a brilliant scientist whose work on energy-focused power has drawn the attention of Chancellor Palpatine as well as the Separatist movement. Usually, if one looks at history, brilliant people are cursed with understanding that their work leads to death — despite their best wishes. I really want to see Galen be excited to get the opportunity to do his research and see the horror that his research will eventually become. That is powerful conflict that Catalyst should be able to expand upon.

3. THE RISE OF DIRECTOR ORSON KRENNIC

All heroes and villains rise from humble beginnings. I have no doubt that Orson Krennic will be one of them. Even with Darth Vader striding through the halls of the unfinished Death Star, Krennic will be the driving villain force in the film. I am hoping Catalyst gives him a quality humble beginning — and how the Dark Side eventually finds him, takes him, twists him, and creates the creature destined to finish and protect the Death Star. Will he be at all like Galen Erso, once upon a time? If so, will we see the schism that will eventually occur between them? This is all great stuff for a novel to expand upon.

2. BACKSTORY ABOUT JYN ERSO

You didn’t think I wouldn’t mention Jyn, did you? The star of “Rogue One” will be within the pages of Catalyst but she will be much younger, before rebellion becomes the path put before her. I am hoping that Catalyst will feature the love and bond between her and her father Galen, as well as expand upon how a father’s love might lead him to create the ultimate power in the universe. That kind of backstory will lend itself well when “Rogue One” comes to theaters.

1. DARTH VADER

We already know that the Dark Lord of the Sith is making an appearance in “Rogue One.” How much of a role is yet to be seen. I am hoping we get to see Darth Vader in Catalyst — because no other character in Star Wars is a catalyst for change than the Dark Lord of the Sith!

For me, I can’t wait for “Rogue One.” Until then, Star Wars: Catalyst by James Luceno is in fine bookstores today!

Welcome to the Death Star!