The universe of Star Wars giveth, and at times, it also taketh away. Not even streaming favorites like Grogu and space dad Din Djarin come away unscathed. The Mandalorian Ultimate Visual Guide and an original novel set in The Mandalorian part of the Star Wars universe will not be published “at this time,” according to DK and Del Ray Books. Official reasons why are scarce.
DK and Del Ray, both subsidiaries of Penguin Random House, were originally announced as publishers of the books on the official Star Wars website on June 30, 2020.* Unfortunately, this is not the way, at least for the time being.
On the morning of March 9, DK Publishing tweeted, “Due to the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian, we will no longer be publishing The Mandalorian Ultimate Visual Guide at this time, as the story continues to unfold on screen.”
Due to the ever-expanding world of The Mandalorian, we will no longer be publishing The Mandalorian Ultimate Visual Guide at this time, as the story continues to unfold on screen.
— DK Books US (@dkpublishing) March 9, 2021
At the same time, Del Rey tweeted saying they would no longer publish The Mandalorian original novel in a very similar message. However, they followed with another tweet that should give fans some hope saying, “We love working with author Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) and are already working with him on a different book. We’re excited to share details with you in the future.”
We love working with author Adam Christopher (@ghostfinder) and are already working with him on a different book. We’re excited to share details with you in the future.
— Star Wars Books (@DelReyStarWars) March 9, 2021
Some speculate because of the timing, this announcement could have much to do with Gina Carano’s Cara Dune character. If you recall, Lucasfilm chose to no longer work with Carano following some of her divisive and anti-Semitic social media posts. While issues may arise from not wanting to put the effort in featuring her Dune character in the original novel, it seems unlikely this would be why the visual novel was pushed aside for now.
Writer Adam Christopher was working on the new original novel set around Mando’s world of the Star Wars universe. Christopher is also known for writing Stranger Things, Elementary, and the Dishonored novels, as well as his own noir series following robot Ray Electromatic. He most recently had contributed to the books Star Wars: From A Certain Point Of View and 40 Stories Celebrating 40 Years of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (as did Hidalgo).
Not many details were given about The Mandalorian novel in Christopher’s announcement or through the official Star Wars announcement, so it is within the realm of possibility to think a chosen storyline could still be amended and released later. However, if the novel was too far along in a story that would clash with the new upcoming Star Wars TV shows, the story, as it was originally planned, could just be gone.
Pablo Hidalgo has written for Star Wars for 20 years and worked with DK on several visual guides in the past, including for G.I. Joe, Transformers, and… oh yeah, Star Wars: The Force Awakens The Visual Dictionary, Star Wars: Rogue One The Ultimate Visual Guide, and Star Wars: The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary. He was slated for the job once again to depict and describing the armor, weapons, history, and lore around Pedro Pascal’s Mando (and, assuredly, little Grogu as well) for his first official visual guide.
Many fans were excited to get a better look at some Beskar steel armor and weapons, some of Din’s backstory, maybe some Mandalore lore… and maybe…. a little vague Grogu backstory? The possibilities were almost endless with a Star Wars Visual Guide.
But now, all that fan excitement has to go on the back burner until Disney decides it’s time to give it another go. As other Star Wars movies and shows have had multiple visual guides, it is hard to understand why exactly they pushed this project off, in particular.
Thinking about the recent announcements of new shows (like Asohka, Book of Boba Fett, and Rangers of the New Republic) telling stories that could intertwine with The Mandalorian, or at least involving some of the key players in the show, lends some credence to the tweets about the cancellation of these projects. That is, putting more emphasis on the “at this time” parts. Hopefully, once these shows and the third season of The Mandalorian have dropped, the visual guide will have enough canon material to work with and Lucasfilm will have had enough time to choose a new direction for the original novel.
Keep an eye out here at Geek Anything for news of when that all happens!
*The official announcement on the Star Wars website has now been edited to remove the books that have been placed on hold because Disney is thorough like that, but Adam Christopher’s announcement is still on a blog post that day.
