On September 4, the Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens publishing program launched. The first wave of titles, including Aftermath, Shattered Empire, and Lost Stars, explored the canonical Star Wars galaxy post-Return of the Jedi for the first time. The program shows how the universe is changing -- the books and comics contain clues and easter eggs that subtly hint at the future -- and that will continue with new novels and short stories. Lucasfilm's Michael Siglain moderated a panel at New York Comic Con with Journey to Star Wars: The Force Awakens authors Jason Fry, Greg Rucka, Claudia Gray, Chuck Wendig, Adam Bray, and Pablo Hidalgo, and they looked back at the program so far and announced new titles.

The new titles will continue to look ahead to the next film. Hidalgo, also a member of Lucasfilm's Story Group, said when they knew where the publishing program was headed, they made a plan. He said once the story line for The Force Awakens really solidified, they had an offsite day and mapped out conceptually what had happened in-universe in the the 30 years since Return of the Jedi. Hidalgo said what they constructed was informed by notes and stories from George Lucas, from ideas developed by Michael Arndt, and using thoughts Rian Johnson had in mind for Episode VIII. Hidalgo then wrote a document depicting the universe leading to the Battle of Jakku. He called it a "seismic event." They built their road map around that watershed moment and built the road map to service different formats and media.Upcoming novels and short stories will inch closer to The Force Awakens. Siglain pulled up a slide showing the image of alien denizens of Maz Kanata's palace and announced the woman in the middle -- the one in black who sort of looks like a court jester -- is named Bazine and that she'll start in a short story by Delilah Dawson. Alan Dean Foster will release a short story about the alien Bazine is sitting on. Both stories will be out in November and December. Landry Walker will have a collection of short stories available on December 1: High Noon on Jakku (a western), The Crimson Corsair and the Lost Treasure of Count Dooku (a pirate story), All Creatures Great and Small (a fable), and Face of Evil (a horror story).In the novel department, Claudia Gray is writing Star Wars: New Republic: Bloodlines. It will be released in spring 2016 and is set six years before The Force Awakens. Chuck Wendig s working on the next books in the Aftermath trilogy. The second book is called Aftermath: Life Debt, and the third and final book is called Aftermath: Empire's End.

Amy Ratcliffe is a writer for IGN TV. You can follow her on on Twitter at @Amy_Geek and IGN at alratcliffe