Does anyone think this game will eventually expand beyond the Rebellion Era? Such as Republic and Old Republic Eras?

Looks tremendously promising (and hard on the wallet)! Love the mixture of board game, RPG, and miniatures game all rolled into one.

I'd like to see better pics of the miniatures. They look pretty good from what I can tell (better than WotC anyway). I wonder if they will be hard plastic like the X-Wing miniatures

Doubtful.

1. FFG has shown little interest in the PT.

2. I think LFL has sort of put the kibosh on most PT stuff in the preparation for Episode VII.

You may well be right, but I have a hard time believing FFG won't eventually expanded into other SW eras besides the Rebellion Era. There would be a huge demand for PT stuff as well as Old Republic. They have already delved into the EU with Kyle Katarn and one of the minis in the IA starter set is a Nexu, which only appeared in the PT.

It's an interesting mix of figures for a starter set. Looks like they want to give us a taste of different unit types as well as stuff from different storylines.

Time will tell but this looks like a huge money sink for me

I for one am very excited to maybe get Old Republic content!

PT is already represented. One of the beasts from the Geonosis arena is a mini.

PT is already represented. One of the beasts from the Geonosis arena is a mini.

I courteously disagree. Just because something first appeared in the prequels, doesn't mean that it is restricted to prequel-era-only. I doubt all nexu went extinct just because the Galactic Empire became the dominating authority. I think FFG is perfectly able to throw in Gungans, Neimoidians, Nexu, and others while still containing their games to the classic era of Rebels vs. Imperials.

Given the focus of the upcoming movies and all of the products surrounding it I find it unlikely that we'll see Old Republic stuff. I think that ship has sailed for the time being.

Judging from what they are doing with descent, I would suppose they will want to keep everything they release compatible with each other and reusable. Since most of the minis in the base game are imperials and much of the game materials are styled explicitly as rebellion and empire none of those would match with an old republic or clone wars expansion - nor would the name of the game, come to think of it - so I doubt they will do that.

On the other hand most expanded universe themes also have their place in the rebellion era so I think we will not have to worry about diversity.