New Star Wars Novel Promised Post‑Rise Answers — Review Says It’s Roughly 80% Flashbacks
Kwame Mbalia’s new young-adult Star Wars novel, Star Wars: The Last Order, follows Finn and Jannah in the days after The Rise of Skywalker. However, a recent review notes the book spends most of its pages in the characters’ pasts rather than showing their next steps.
Book overview
Title: Star Wars: The Last Order.
Author: Kwame Mbalia.
Format: Young-adult novel.
Mbalia previously contributed a short story to A Certain Point of View: Return of the Jedi in 2023, and this is his first full-length Star Wars novel.
What the book covers
The novel is set a few days after The Rise of Skywalker. In the present timeline, Finn and Jannah uncover a plot involving kidnapped children who are to be trained for a rogue army that could threaten the New Republic.
However, according to a review, flashbacks that explore the characters’ early experiences with the First Order make up roughly 80% of the book. Those flashbacks examine how both characters were raised inside the First Order and why they ultimately left.
Characters and details
Jannah: The novel expands her backstory. The review reports that Mbalia provides details about how she got her name, and otherwise develops her relationship with squadmates and the First Order. The book does not confirm popular fan theories about her parentage.
Finn: The book shows early days in the FN Corps and scenes of his compassion, and it includes a few domestic moments with Poe. The review states Finn’s chapters offer limited new direction for the character beyond what the films showed. Actor John Boyega has publicly expressed his displeasure with how Finn’s film arc concluded.
Wider context and what’s next
The Last Order is marketed as continuing Finn and Jannah’s stories after Episode IX, but it focuses heavily on origin material. Meanwhile, Lucasfilm has other post-sequel projects in development. For example, Shawn Levy’s film Starfighter is scheduled for 2027 and is reported to take place sometime after the sequel trilogy.
Additionally, reporting indicates plans related to Rey continue to change; recent coverage says Lucasfilm pulled a Rey film from a December 2026 release date, and that Rey may be slated for future projects. More details can be found in reporting that discusses the status of that Rey film.
Sources
Review coverage and reporting cited in this summary include a review of The Last Order, a Variety interview regarding John Boyega’s comments, and reporting on Rey’s film release schedule. For the Variety piece about Boyega’s comments, see this Variety article. For reporting on the Rey film release change, see this report.
