Lucasfilm has officially confirmed Ceret and Terec, the mysterious bond twins in the Star Wars: The High Republic transmedia initiative, are trans non-binary. Diversity is an increasingly important point of contention in Hollywood, with studios finally beginning to take their first faltering steps towards allowing diverse heroes to take center stage. Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige recently confirmed the MCU's first LGBTQ superhero is coming soon, and other studios are lagging further behind.
Until recently, Lucasfilm has relegated diversity to tie-ins. Books and comics have featured prominent gay characters for several years now. A lesbian Moff appeared in Paul S. Kemp's Lords of the Sith, while one of Charles Wendig's main characters in his Aftermath trilogy was Sinjir Rath Velus, the first gay man in Disney canon. Star Wars' first openly gay couple appeared in Star Wars Resistance, while Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker featured a blink-and-you'll-miss-it lesbian kiss that could be overlooked by most viewers. It really is taking Lucasfilm quite some time to actually make diversity and representation a core part of the franchise, which is frankly something of a shame.
In honor of Trans Day of Visibility, Lucasilm and Marvel have unveiled a variant cover for Star Wars: The High Republic #6 focusing on the first trans non-binary Jedi, the bond twins Ceret and Terec. These two siblings are fascinating characters, essentially sharing a gestalt mind, able to sense each other's thoughts and experiences even when they are separated by a considerable distance. The variant cover was created by artists Javier Garron and Marte Gracie, and Garron took delight in showing it off on Twitter.
The tie-ins are continuing to blaze the trail for Star Wars as a franchise in terms of diversity, and hopefully it won't be long before the movies follow their lead. A galaxy filled with so many diverse life-forms should also feature a lot of diversity in human terms as well. Still, it's worth noting that Ceret and Terec are appearing in Lucasfilm's most significant transmedia initiative to date, Star Wars: The High Republic, a massive project set some 200 years before the events of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith. Characters are already transitioning from one medium to another seamlessly. Jedi Master Avar Kriss was introduced in Charles Soule's novel Light of the Jedi and has gone on to play a significant role across the entire transmedia initiative, while Justina Ireland's A Test of Courage introduced readers to a young Jedi Knight destined to appear soon in Cavan Scott's ongoing series. Hopefully that means Ceret and Terec will likewise be explored in multiple mediums.
This is a step forward for Lucasfilm, but the question will be whether or not Ceret and Terec's trans non-binary status will actually be relevant to the plots, or whether it will simply be a detail known only to those who follow the chatter on social media. Only time will tell as Star Wars: The High Republic continues to undfold.
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