As revealed in Marvel Comics’ November solicitations, the publisher’s main Star Wars book is coming to an end with issue #75, which will also conclude the current “Rebels and Rogues” storyline by Greg Pak and Phil Noto. Since its launch in January 2015, with an issue that sold 1 million copies, Star Wars has been the flagship book of Marvel’s line of comics set in the galaxy far, far away.
You shouldn’t be too worried about the end of the book, though. For one thing, Marvel loves publishing brand-new first issues whenever it can to boost sales. That’s likely what’s happening here since the cancellation is so close to the release of The Rise of Skywalker in December. What better way to capitalize on the release of the most important Star Wars movie yet than by publishing an easy jumping on point for readers? Whatever the case may be, Marvel told io9 that fans should be ready to hear more about the future of the Star Wars comic next month.
Let’s call this a relaunch then. What might that mean for the comic series? There’s one really interesting scenario…
So far, Star Wars has mostly told stories set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, a period of time that sees the Rebellion on the offensive against the Empire after the destruction of the Death Star. Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, and Han’s wife (?!) go on all kinds of adventures and dangerous missions, and the tail end of the series sees the Rebels looking for a new base after their exodus from Yavin IV. We, of course, all know that the Rebel Alliance will eventually settle on Hoth.
Advertisement
But with a relaunch, there’s an opportunity for the series to jump to a completely different time period. With the Sequel Trilogy all wrapped up and The Mandalorian set to explore the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens, there’s a good chance that the books and comics will begin to flesh out this era as well. While there have already been books and comics set directly after Return of the Jedi, they’ve all been pretty careful not to include any major spoilers about the many mysteries of the Sequel Trilogy. Once the Sequel baggage is out of the way, Marvel may very well be able to set a new Star Wars comic in the post-RotJ era. Perhaps a series that finally shows us all the adventures Luke, Han, and Leia were up to before the New Republic was established?
Whatever is eventually announced, we’ll keep you posted on the latest Star Wars comic news!
John Saavedra is an associate editor at Den of Geek. Read more of his work here. Follow him on Twitter @johnsjr9 and make sure to check him out on Twitch.