Homestuck: Beyond Canon News & Q&A

April 17, 2026

Summary

In the Homestuck Community this announcement covers the Beyond Canon newspost and extensive Q&A. It confirms the original prologue will be preserved while most of the story is being redone, monthly updates with plans to increase frequency, and that bonus content like Pesterquest will be optional. The post also outlines licensing limits and future merch plans.

https://homestuck2.com/news newspost with Q&A responses, a LOT of things. My personal biased summary that you can 100% trust anyway:
- They are keeping only the broad strokes of the original HS^2 (what James now calls "the prologue") and doing mostly new things otherwise. James apologizes for what the original HS^2 people did too, and it seems like they were not actually asked to return for the current iteration of the project, despite other reports (he also says to ignore that and to stop focusing on the old team or bringing up old discourse and just move on).
- They don't want to retcon the original story because they feel it would be unsatisfying even though James calls some of it "baffling". They're going to try to handle them with delicacy and care. They've plotted "a lot" of the story. Updates are still monthly, but they want to increase frequency and/or length with time.
- Pesterquest and the bonus updates will not be required reading. The bonus updates might be pushed into a future section of the story (my guess is optional segments like the clickable pictures in the Doc Scratch intermission, but he didn't say).
- James doesn't know what's going on with Hiveswap Act 3, and even if he knew he's under an NDA.
- James and the HICU don't own Homestuck, but they have a license that allows them to monetize it. James is trying to push out a Best of Homestuck vinyl (still need to contact the original musicians), and says he can't touch the website (I hear Viz are the only one who can) or the books (there are some changes on that front but James is not involved or authorized). ForFansByFans/WLF items aren't coming back because the company folded, Topatoco merch will continue returning, and James said they will try to bring "better versions" of past merch.