Claudia Gray’s first Star Wars novel, Lost Stars, was one of the most widely praised books of the new canon.  Thus, when it was announced that she would be writing a second novel, titled Bloodline, Star Wars fans clamored with approval.  When Lucasfilm released some absurdly cool posters to promote the upcoming novel, the excitement was palpable.

Today, Lucasfilm’s Senior Editor, Jennifer Heddle, wrote a fantastic article on StarWars.com on “8 Reasons Star Wars: Bloodline Will Be Essential Reading.”  Heddle lists a variety of great reasons, but one in particular may trump them all:

6. Rian Johnson’s input. Some of the story ideas and elements in this novel came straight from Rian Johnson, director of the forthcoming Episode VIII. We are indebted to him for his creativity and generosity!

This is extremely exciting.  Even if Johnson’s input isn’t substantial, it’s this kind of collaboration that many fans drooled about when the new canon was announced.  However, to date, we haven’t seen much of this kind of film to supplementary material crossing over.  With a title like Bloodline and a story that clearly focuses on Princess General Leia, it’s great to hear that Johnson and Gray worked together at least to some extent.

I was already excited for Bloodline.  Now I’m chomping at the bit!

Star Wars: Bloodline will be released on May 3rd and can be pre-ordered on Amazon now!