The Knightfall Trilogy was a planned entry in The New Jedi Order series, to be written by Michael Jan Friedman, with Terese Nielsen providing cover illustrations. The books, Jedi Storm, Jedi Fire, and Jedi Blood, were slated to follow Balance Point in the publishing lineup. However, the series was cancelled after Friedman had finished the first book, Jedi Storm. The trilogy was first reported on JediNet on June 26, 2000.
A small preview of cover art led fans to speculate that the trilogy would focus on Danni Quee and Ganner Rhysode. A publisher's summary later revealed that the trilogy would instead focus on Danni Quee and the new character of Jorallen.
Cover art for Jedi Storm
After much speculation, Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey Books confirmed Knightfall’s cancellation on November 18, 2000.
The trilogy was replaced by Greg Keye's Edge of Victory duology.
Entries
- Knightfall I: Jedi Storm by Michael Jan Friedman (26 ABY)
- Knightfall II: Jedi Fire by Michael Jan Friedman (26 ABY)
- Knightfall III: Jedi Blood by Michael Jan Friedman (26 ABY)
Detailed timeline of events
- c. June 26, 2000
- GhentZ of JediNet reports that Knightfall will be the title of the New Jedi Order trilogy to follow Balance Point, to be written by Michael Jan Friedman with cover art by Terese Nielsen. Terese Nielsen provides a sneak-peak of the cover art on her personal website. The book has an expected release date of February 2001.
- c. July 25, 2000
- TheForce.net reports the first title to be Jedi Storm.
- c. July 28, 2000
- TheForce.net reports the second and third titles to be Jedi Fire and Jedi Blood, respectively.
- c. August 14, 2000
- Publisher’s Weekly has an entry for Jedi Storm:
- Star Wars: The New Jedi Order: Knightfall I: Jedi Storm (Feb., $TBA) by Michael Jan Friedman follows the adventures of Danni Quee and Jorallen, a Jedi knight who may have a mysterious past.
- c. October 16, 2000
- GhentZ of JediNet reports that a search of the Random House Online Catalog revealed J. Gregory Keyes is writing New Jedi Order #7, originally planned to be Knightfall I: Jedi Storm by Friedman. Subsequent searches for Knightfall or Star Wars books by Friedman redirect to an entry referring to a duology by Keyes.
- c. October 22, 2000
- StarWars.com announces another prequel-era novel, to be written by James Luceno, in addition to the Darth Maul novel by Michael Reaves to be released in February 2001. Fan speculation regards Knightfall’s cancellation as a need to make room in the publishing schedule for more prequal novels. Further searches on the Random House Online Catalog reveal no trace of the Knightfall trilogy, confirming that the books have indeed been cancelled.
- c. November 1, 2000
- Terese Nielsen posts the preliminary sketches of Jedi Storm on her personal website.
- c. November 2, 2000
- Terese Nielsen posts the final cover of Jedi Storm.
- c. November 7, 2000
- StarWars.com posts the cover of Edge of Victory I: Conquest, the replacement to Jedi Storm. Terese Nielsen posts the preliminary sketches of Jedi Fire.
- c. November 18, 2000
- Shelly Shapiro, Editorial Director at Del Rey Books issues a statement regarding Knightfall’s cancellation:
- "It was decided, after much dialog back and forth about ongoing story development, to shift a portion of the New Jedi Order's focus. We also felt that reducing the number of NJO books next year would allow us to better spotlight the prequel novels, which constitute another exciting new direction for Star Wars fiction. Mike Friedman had completed only JEDI STORM, and believe me, none of us felt good discarding even that much work. But on the whole, it was agreed that this was the best thing for the overall Star Wars publishing program."
Trivia
- The book series was about a new Jedi named Jorallyn and Danni Quee.
- The first book of the series had already been completed when the series was cancelled.
- In addition to the first book being completed, the basic outlines for all three books of the series were likely to have been completed as well, prior to the cancellation of the series.
- The cover artist was Terese Nielsen.