Suvudu Universe

The great fan site Knights’ Archive found an early catalog listing for seven new Star Wars books that are to be published by Disney Press.  This follows up on Disney cancelling The Clone Wars and creating a new show, Star Wars Rebels to air on its own family of networks. Speculation was rampant given Disney’s vast multimedia reach that there could be a shakeup among Star Wars licensees.

This news may be some confirmation of such a shakeup.  Previously similar Star Wars books as to the ones listed in Disney Book Groups’ Spring/Summer 2014 catalog have been published by DK publishing in their “Star Wars Readers” line of books.  At Disney this book series is known as “Disney Wonderful World of Reading.”  DK does a wonderful job with the larger format visually focused Star Wars books, such as The Complete Visual Dictionary, so it would be a shame to see the publisher have its licensing agreement not renewed.  But as yet it looks like only a portion of what would have usually been a DK licensed product is moving to Disney’s in-house publishing.

UNTITLED – Chapter Book #1 

On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484702703, 1484702700 $4.99 US / $5.50 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 8 to 12, Grades 3 to 7 Disney Press 90 pages Status: Forthcoming
Catalog Copy: Chapter book based on the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.

UNTITLED – Early Reader #1
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484702710, 1484702719 $3.99 US / $4.50 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3 Disney Press Series: World of Reading 32 pages Status: Forthcoming
Catalog Copy: Level 1 Early Reader based on the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.

UNTITLED – Junior Novel #1
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484702727, 1484702727 $5.99 US / $6.50 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 10 to 14, Grades 5 to 9 Disney Press 144 pages Status: Forthcoming
Catalog Copy: Junior Novel based on the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.

UNTITLED 8×8 #1
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484702734, 1484702735 $3.99 US / $4.50 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3 Disney Press 24 pages Status: Forthcoming
Catalog Copy: 8×8 with stickers based on the upcoming animated series Star Wars Rebels.

Star Wars: Rebels Read-Along Storybook and CD
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484705049, 1484705041 $6.99 US / $7.99 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3 Disney Press Series: Read-Along Storybook and CD 32 pages Status: Forthcoming
Title Summary: No title summary available.

Star Wars: Rebels Picture Book
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484706695, 1484706692 $16.99 US / $17.99 Can. Hardback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3 Disney Press 32 pages Status: Forthcoming
Title Summary: No title summary available.

Star Wars: Rebels Early Reader #2 (Level 2)
On Sale Date: August 5, 2014 9781484704868, 148470486X $3.99 US / $4.50 Can. Paperback / softback Juvenile Fiction / Media Tie-In Ages 6 to 8, Grades 1 to 3 Disney Press Series: World of Reading 32 pages Status: Forthcoming
Title Summary: No title summary available.

These books all have an on sale date of August 5, 2014, which hints at two things to me. First, all the books will cover roughly the same content in different formats and for slightly different reading levels.  Secondly, we may be seeing the 1-hour premiere on Disney Channel during August before the traditional late September or early October beginning of the fall television season. Karen Traviss’ adult novelization of The Clone Wars movie was released on July 26, 2008 and the film itself was released on August 15th.

On the Cartoon Network The Clone Wars had the following premiere dates, Season One began on October 3, 2008, Season Two began on October 2, 2009, Season Three began on September 17, 2010, Season Four began on September 16, 2011, and Season Five began on September 29, 2012.

It is certainly possible that Rebels books could come out the first week of August and we could wait one to two months for the special one hour premiere episode to air on the Disney Channe l, but I think this signals that the premiere episode will be a special event and will end up airing in late August or the first week of September before the series begins on Disney XD in proper in late September or October.

Disney’s 144 page Untitled: Junior Novel #1 does not preclude an adult novelization of Rebels’ premiere story arc, but we have not yet had any indication from Del Rey that they have an adult novelization planned.

Thanks to Knights’ Archive for combing through the publishing catalogs and finding this bit of information.  Stay tuned here for more Star Wars Rebels news as it develops.

SOURCE: Knights’ Archive and Edelweiss