The capital of the New Republic has moved around quite a bit in Star Wars canon, and there’s finally a reason why the government returned to Coruscant in The Mandalorian. Coruscant was the traditional galactic capital of the Star Wars galaxy for thousands of years, and every government from the Old Republic to the Galactic Empire used it as their base of operations. The Aftermath trilogy, however, revealed that the New Republic rotated its galactic capital across various planets, and by the time of the sequel trilogy of Star Wars movies, it was on Hosnian Prime, not Coruscant.

Even though it was no longer the capital, Coruscant was still one of the most exciting planets in Star Wars, and it seemed to play a major role in the New Republic’s government in The Mandalorian season 3. Carson Teva’s commanding officer was stationed there, and Dr. Penn Pershing went through the New Republic’s Amnesty Program on Coruscant. However, neither The Mandalorian nor Ahsoka – which saw Hera Syndulla navigate the New Republic on Coruscant – explained why the New Republic still had some of its operations there. Luckily, a new canon history of the galaxy has given greater insight.

Coruscant Has The Necessary Infrastructure For Running The Galaxy

Chris Kempshall’s “The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire” explained that the New Republic still used Coruscant for some of its governmental functions simply out of convenience.

“One of the reasons why the New Republic would eventually move some operations back to Coruscant after the war was because the world was already designed to handle and administer the galaxy’s infrastructure.”

Coruscant had been used by every galactic government for over 25,000 years by the time of The Mandalorian. As such, quite a bit of Coruscant was built specifically for a galactic government, like the Galactic Senate building and multiple other types of governmental facilities. Coruscant also had other resources that were hugely important to running a government, like a huge population of people who had experience as government employees. Rotating the New Republic’s capital between planets made sense, as it kept any one planet from becoming the “center of the galaxy,” but it would have been foolish to simply abandon all the resources Coruscant already had.

Coruscant Is Perfectly Placed On Major Hyperspace Lanes

In addition to its existing infrastructure, Coruscant also has a prime location on the Star Wars galaxy map. Coruscant was a Core World, meaning it was located at roughly the center of the galaxy. That in itself gave Coruscant a great planet to use as the galactic capital, but it was also located next to several major hyperspace lanes. Hyperspace lanes were essentially the highways of space: they were well-charted, safe, and efficient ways to get around the galaxy. Coruscant became a natural hub for galactic logistics because of them, as it could send supplies, resources, trade goods and more anywhere in the galaxy.

There was a reason Coruscant became the traditional galactic capital, and “The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire” has proven that the New Republic recognized its benefits. Even though it wasn’t the sole capital of the New Republic, Coruscant still managed to be incredibly important to the galactic government after the fall of the Empire. It’s likely that the very same factors that led the New Republic back to Coruscant in The Mandalorian will make sure the city-planet stays an important part of the future of Star Wars.

Purchase Chris Kempshall’s “Star Wars The Rise and Fall of the Galactic Empire” on Amazon.