Star Wars: The Old Republic Writer Drew Karpyshyn to Return to BioWare.
Drew Karpyshyn, author of the Star Wars Legends: Darth Bane trilogy and a writer for the Knights Of The Old Republic games, has now announced that he will return to BioWare. Don’t expect a new project to begin upon his return, though.
Karpyshyn posted the following on his own blog:
Speaking of full circle, here’s the second piece of big news: as of this past week, I am back working at BioWare again! For those who don’t know, I spent over a decade with BioWare working on many award winning and fan-beloved games like Mass Effect 1&2, Knights of the Old Republic and the Star Wars: The Old Republic Online MMO. A few years ago I left BioWare to focus on my Chaos Born novels, but now that the trilogy is finished, I’ve decided to come back into the fold. But for those of you who love my novels, don’t worry – I’ll still be writing more of those, too! Working at BioWare was a challenging but very rewarding job, and it’s good to be back as part of the team. The thing I missed most about BioWare was the amazing people I got to work with, and luckily for me many of them are still there! I suspect a lot of folks are going to wonder if this means BioWare is about to announce a new project tied to my return. The short answer: no. I originally came to the Austin studio many years ago to work on SWTOR and – at least for now – that’s what I’m focusing on again.
So while his return to BioWare might not (immediately) mean much to fans of the new canon and The Force Awakens, it at least would indicate that BioWare’s alternate Star Wars continuity should be in good hands.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
I’m currently reading the first of the three Darth Bane novels. This guy is a great writer. It’s a shame the Bane trilogy isn’t canon. Does anybody know if there’s any chance they’d ever make any of the Old Republic stories canon in the future?
There’s always a chance, I suppose. I’ve read the Bane trilogy also and really enjoyed it.
I’m only reading the first at the moment and it seems really good. I’m glad to hear the others are good too.
http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/starwars/images/f/f5/Darth_Bane_Clone_Wars.png/revision/latest?cb=20150414050352
The book version of him almost made it into canon. He was to appear in Clone Wars.
Damn. I hope they cherry pick some things and put them into canon. Didn’t they mention doing that at some point?
I hope so. I am a huge KOTOR fan so my fingers are crossed.
he is in cannon watch the lost missions https://www.google.ca/search?q=darth+bane+lost+missions&espv=2&biw=1280&bih=939&tbm=isch&imgil=xCiN5HbTE5sthM%253A%253BcBqR5EE2K5GKWM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fwww.starwarsnewsnet.com%25252F2014%25252F11%25252Fthe-clone-wars-the-lost-missions-qa-darth-bane.html&source=iu&pf=m&fir=xCiN5HbTE5sthM%253A%252CcBqR5EE2K5GKWM%252C_&usg=__1oMvBx8YlfRbbX6eByDuyqbWKxw%3D&ved=0CDIQyjdqFQoTCKe7sazVhsgCFUkMkgodkKAGVQ&ei=5DP_Vae5CsmYyASQwZqoBQ#imgrc=xCiN5HbTE5sthM%3A&usg=__1oMvBx8YlfRbbX6eByDuyqbWKxw%3D
Bane is canon but Karpyshyn’s Bane stories are not.
I love the Darth Bane trilogy, so much that I am planning to cosplay Bane at celebration next year in London.
As for cannon, I don’t think the books are officially canon, but the Character is, Darth Bane appeared in the clone wars, so is canon. I really hope his story is regarded as canon.
With Drew still writing for SWTOR and Bioware and the continuation of the SWTOR/KOTOR universe on the MMO, I wouldn’t be surprised, and I hope, that KOTOR/SWOTOR and Bane are/or will be all canon at some point.
I’m actually listening to the audio book version. It’s so strange at first – it’s my first time listening to an audio book. It works so so so well with Star Wars, it’s ridiculous. Perhaps in the future they will re-release the trilogy or something, that’d be cool. I haven’t played the games as of yet , I might do at some point… I wonder if they’ll make an Old Republic movie in the future. Ah, the possibilities.
Yeah the Audiobooks are good, esp the ones with SFX and Music. I’ve just finished listening to the trilogy on Audiobook a few weeks ago, brought a great new way to enjoy the stories again.
Fingers crossed for the future, i’m almost done playing the two single player games again at the mo. They are a bit dated graphically and they have their quirks but still play well. The MMO SWTOR will require a lot of time and dedication if you are up for it, but the first two alone always take me 40 hours + each playthrough as I am thorough. Being able to go light or dark on both means a very interesting double play through on both is available. Bargain these days for that much entertainment as they are pretty cheap on steam now. Not too expensive if you don’t enjoy them either. Just remember to turn off ‘frame buffer effects’ on the first one if playing on a modern system (Win 7 +)
I would love an Old Republic movie in the future but I am happy if it stays in books and games either way 🙂
The SFX and music makes it so awesome! Yeah I’m glad they are good. I will try check out the games if I can too everyone keeps saying they are good 😀
no I want him to write at least some of the new novels
Right now lucasfilm is trying to keep the focus on episode 7 and the post-Jedi world, but I am fairly confident that if the popularity of the old republic stays as strong as it is now then it will definitely return to canon in some form or another. honestly I wouldn’t even be surprised if bane or revan got a name-drop in the new film
Knights of Re(va)n possibly?
Awesome idea, Not likely but awesome.
Well darth banes book trilogy might be “legends” which sucks cause those books were DAMN good, but Bane is official canon and Disney would be stupid not to roll with that as well as lots of the old republic timeline. There’s too much potential AND interested fanbase. Oh and to clear up for those that don’t know, darth bane was shown (maybe not a lot) in the sixth season of the clone wars. So whether the trilogy of books drew wrote on bane are just “legends”, the name darth bane and the fact he came up with the rule of two is still official canon. I would be so pumped if they did a movie about him.
As much as I love the story he told in KOTOR. I felt the novel Revan undid some of the coolest aspects of his character. It completely wrecked the awesome stuff that KOTOR II set up about Revan.
This is good to reference right now, good interview from Scmoes Kristan Harloff (Jedi Council). Talks about Revan as well as Bane and explains why the Novel undid how he was portrayed in the KOTOR2 backstory that had assumed the dark ending for the first.
http://www.starwarsnewsnet.com/2015/01/drew-karpyshyn-talks-star-wars-the-old-republic-darth-bane-darth-revan-the-new-canon-and-more.html
His Bane trilogy is better than anything Di$ney’s crapped out in the last 3 years.
Disney hasn’t crapped out anything Star Wars in the last 3 years…
That is utter nonsense. Much has come out of Disney in terms of Stars Wars, and it’s not looking pretty. I’ll let the movie come out before my full judgement, but they’re changing a lot, and it’s sad because the EU was good, what they put out needed to be better.
I like Path of Destruction the most but I feel Lords of the Sith is better than 90% of the old EU. There was some really bad stuff in EU that many people try to ignore. They are all like why did they get rid of KOTOR, Bane, and Thrawn. They were so much better than this Disney era crap.Which is true they are great stories but lets be honest most of the EU was not all this good. You know what the old EU did not have…….Episode 7,8,9. So to me it is a no contest.
I agree for the most part. I think the main problems with how Disney is transitioning from old EU to new canon are:
1.) Disney needed to hit the ground running to convince people the new canon was serious. Had they BEGAN new canon with Lords of the Sith, then Tarkin people would be singing a different tune. Instead they began with one of the weaker books “A New Dawn”, which gave people mixed feelings at the start. My friends rushed to get their hands on A New Dawn, but were so turned off by it they never even read Lords of the Sith.
2.) that Disney is hyping up the wrong parts of the new canon. There were HUGE media pushes for A New Dawn and for Aftermath, which were critically two of the worst received books in their lineup, where as Lords of the Sith, and Lost Stars were virtually invisible to the non hardcore readers.
I remember thinking ‘they gave us trade negotiations, now we get a book on lunar mining for shock absorbers! Star Wars has never been better!!’
My biggest issue is the lack of intelligence in the writing, in the 1976-2012 canon they largely respected the readers in that they went into subplots about the economics/politics of a GFFA without being boring like in the PT. While everythig I read in the Di$ney canon seems an attempt to please your average Micheal Bay fan who have never picked up a Star Wars book before. Hence all the recycled plot line, archetypes, and dialogue.
What about Kasdan’s crap? Beware of the hidden quality of Kasdan’s crap, or it will bite you IN THE ASS.
Kasdan didn’t write any books or comics and TFA could be crap but I still have more faith in him than I do Kennedy, Abrams, Or Lucas.
It remains to be seen if Bioware’s “Star Wars continuity” is truly “alternate” or if it will become “canon”. Considering that they do everything story wise with Disney’s approval, I’d say we have a few surprises in store.