SDCC 2023: E.K Johnston Discusses ‘Star Wars: Crimson Climb’

At San Diego Comic-Con 2023, we had the opportunity to sit down with E.K Johnston, the renowned author behind critically acclaimed Star Wars novels like Ahsoka and the Queens Trilogy. With her upcoming novel Crimson Climb on the horizon, Johnston shared insights into her approach to writing iconic characters such as Ahsoka and Padme, delving into their unique journeys while staying true to the beloved Star Wars canon. In this interview, she also offers a glimpse into the challenges Qi’ra faces in Crimson Climb and how she crafts authentic and relatable characters in the Star Wars universe.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

BUT WHY THO: E.K Johnston, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with us today. I’m personally a big fan. I love the Ahsoka book and the Queens trilogy books are some of my favorites. Just really excited to speak with you today. How’s your con been going? How’s the experience been so far? 

E.K. JOHNSTON: I had like a 23-hour day yesterday because I came in from the East Coast. But it was long because I went to the Her Universe fashion show, and it was incredible, so it was 100% worth it!

BUT WHY THO: That’s great! know that we have Crimson Climb coming out here pretty soon, but I wanted to focus a little bit on Padme and Ahsoka first. Having written those two critically acclaimed Star Wars stories with those two perennial characters, what drew you to those characters initially, and how do you approach delving deeper into those stories, having had them be told in the past in other, in other mediums?

E.K. JOHNSTON: It was kind of in reverse that it happened. The original pitch that I sent to Disney Lucasfilm Press was for three Handmaiden books. And when I talked to Michael Siglain for the first time, he was like, “We’re putting some movies together, but we’ll be in touch.” It was 2014. We’re putting some movies together, but we’ll be in touch. And then we had another chat in the spring of 2015, and I had one of those moments where I’m like, “They’re gonna ask me to write Ahsoka. I should probably finish the Clone Wars,” which I liked, but I hadn’t finished because I didn’t want to be sad. It was my first time through, so I didn’t know, like, what happened to her at all. So I was just terrified every time something went wrong that that would be the end and all that kind of stuff.

Then with Padme, The Phantom Menace came out literally on my 15th birthday. So I was like, George, you shouldn’t have. What a wonderful birthday present. You got me this amazing teenage girl. fantastic fashion sense and great friends and all that kind of stuff. She was kind of the character that I’d been thinking about a lot. And then Ahsoka, I guess, crept up on me for lack of a better description.

BUT WHY THO: On that thread, both Padme and Ahsoka are obviously super strong female characters with different and unique journeys in their own rights. What aspects of their personalities and experience resonate with you the most and how does that influence your writing them or even as you’re looking at Qi’ra in the future?

E.K. JOHNSTON: The thing that I liked the most about writing Ahsoka was that it’s at a time in her life when things are terrible but she’s still, she’s still Ahsoka. She still has that happiness, for lack of a better term, that lightness to her. She’s not doom and gloom. She’s very sad, but she’s not going to let it bury her. And I, I really like that in her, in her character. The way that she pushes through. Claudia Gray has that line that Qui Gon says fighting for the light, not because it’s like easier or whatever, but because it’s the light. Even though she wrote that several years after I wrote Ahsoka, I was like, “Yes, that is, that is Star Wars to me, that’s what I’ve always been reaching for.”

Then Padme is fun because she’s good at all the things that, are usually weak characteristics: She’s a girl and she’s good at politics and action isn’t her first response to things. I got to kind of really dial that up and be like, “But what if that was a good thing?” Because like, a lot fewer people get hurt when you do that. And then when it doesn’t work out, because it doesn’t always work out she is still willing to step up and punch somebody if she’s got to. So, I like that kind of different approaches to resisting that both characters offer.

BUT WHY THO: Switching gears to Qi’ra with the upcoming novel Crimson Climb. Her story’s been told so great in the Crimson Reign comics and then the Darth Vader comics. In Crisimon Climb, can you give us, obviously not giving way too much, but maybe a little bit of a glimpse of the challenges that you expect her to face?

E.K. JOHNSTON:  My pitch for the book was that I wanted to write her from the time the glass comes down between her and Han in the spaceport in Corellia. Until about 10 seconds before she meets Darth Maul for the first time. A lot of really terrible things happen to her in that 18-month stretch. And to be the person that she is by the time we meet her again after that time jump in the Solo movie, she goes through a lot very quickly.

The way that I would normally do it would be like, “Oh, this person has triumphed in adversary by doing the good thing, and the right thing, and the best thing”, and all that kind of stuff. And Qi’ra it’s not that person. She does usually the worst thing because it’s what she needs. And she’s willing to sacrifice literally everyone. As long as she comes out the other side.

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BUT WHY THO: That’s such a great point and I think so much different than Ahsoka and Padme. When you’re looking at Qi’ra, how do you prepare to delve into the psyche because 18 months changed a lot? How did you prepare to kind of write that psychological change for a character like her?

E.K. JOHNSTON: Well, I watched the movie [Solo: A Star Wars Story] a bunch of times because I really enjoy it. I also watched a bunch of Game of Thrones clips where Daenerys Targaryen is doing stuff because I wanted to see Emilia Clarke. One of my favorite things about her acting is her stone face that she’s very good at. Like this incredibly expressive total blankness, if that makes any sense. It was something I wanted to not bring over directly, because Daenerys and Qi’ra are two very different people, but to have to sort of fall back on a little bit.

Then the sort of physicality that she brought to Sarah Connor in the Terminator movie that she was in. I know that those are all different characters, but having the same actress, and watching her move, and how she does, different types of things helps me sort of piece the character together when I’m writing descriptions.

BUT WHY THO: As an author working with an established universe like Star Wars with so many passionate fans and so much interesting canon to balance, how do you approach that process to make sure that you’re still writing true to yourself but still making sure that the canon and the fandom balance out? 

E.K. JOHNSTON: The fun thing is that that’s actually like the strength of Star Wars. I love the teamwork aspect. Not And only did I get to use Mur Lafferty and the Solo novelization and Rae Carson’s stuff from Most Wanted, but I also got to use some of the stuff that Daniel Jose Older wrote about Corellia for The High Republic. 

Lady Proxima is in Daniel’s book and as soon as I read her name in that book, I was like, I have to put this book down and go slightly change the Qi’ra thing that I’ve been working on. Now that I know more about Proxima and how she’s connected to Corellia, the gangs, and the whole idea if you cross them, they will eat you. That changes, Qi’ra’s whole approach to life, where if she screws up, she doesn’t just die, she gets eaten. 

So I love that stuff, I love reaching into other people’s stuff and just being like, “Oh, draw this out, play around with this. Sometimes it backfires and you have to take a character out, which definitely happened with Crimson Climb. It’s just getting to play with the stuff that other people have come up with and just draw it out and make it work sometimes and use it to sort of build the story.

BUT WHY THO: One of the things I love most about your novels is your character development and the emotional depth that you’re able to create. How do you craft such authentic and relatable characters in the Star Wars universe? Are you pulling from your own personal experiences or do you take certain inspiration, from other places?

E.K. JOHNSTON: Sometimes it’s a mix of both. In the Padme books, most of the cast came with her. There weren’t a lot of characters that I had invented. There were more in Queen’s Hope because I had to do the whole ship shenanigan, but there weren’t a ton of characters that I had got to make up completely in the Padme book.

Then with Qi’ra, she needed, three different gangs and a bunch of crimes, so I just got to keep coming up with more and more characters. I always joke that I name characters after people and then use character traits. Sometimes you just see something and you’re like, “That’s hilarious,” and put it in the book. By the time it gets to the end, you don’t even remember, necessarily where everything came from but getting to build an actual heist team that has all the talents covered that you need.

Much like with the Handmaidens I was like, “Okay, here’s all of your skills, now we’ll build the character from there.” I did something similar thing with Qi’ra’s various teams in that I gave them all the stuff that they were going to have to do and the story and then built the character up from there.

BUT WHY THO: I don’t know how I would handle being a Star Wars author having been in this fandom for so long. So, how do you handle the responsibility of writing for such a passionate and dedicated audience? 

E.K. JOHNSTON: Well, my assistant does run my Twitter now, so I am not online as I used to be. When it came to Ahsoka, I was terrified like I was gonna break Star Wars or whatever. And it turns out, one person can’t do that by themselves. So it’s not as intimidating as I was thinking.

When I was at home during the pandemic, I was kind of sad about it. I felt really distanced. And I was talking to Ashley Eckstein and I was like, “You know what? I just like, what if it’s gone? Like, what if it never comes back?” And she was like, “You’re going to get 10 seconds into your first convention when you get back on the road and be like, ‘Ah, yes, this is why I do this.'”

Which is exactly what happened. I literally walked into the convention center in Phoenix and was like, “Oh, right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I’m good. I’m good. This is, these are the people who love it so much.” It’s the people you get to see are just so wonderful.

BUT WHY THO: For my last question, do you have any parting words of advice especially when it comes to Star Wars and your writing even if they aren’t all caught up on all of these series?

E.K. JOHNSTON: I think the important thing is, we’re all in this for fun. If it feels like homework or an assignment, I don’t want to say you’re doing it wrong, but, you might be doing it wrong. One of my favorite things about The High Republic is that, even though I’m friends with most of the authors and we talk about Star Wars, I don’t know anything that’s coming in The High Republic. So I get to read it 100% as a fan, and it is the best.

So I’m so excited about everything. I just kind of hope that even though people might know, a little bit more about what’s coming with Qi’ra, just because we know where the story ends up, there’s still that level of excitement as well.