With Star Wars: The Force Awakens now a bonafide hit at the box office, fans have to wait a few more months for the first spinoff, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. This will be followed by Star Wars: Episode VIII (December 15, 2017), Star Wars Anthology: Han Solo (May 25, 2018), Star Wars: Episode IX (2019) and Star Wars Anthology: Boba Fett (2020). While we anticipate these adventures obliterating the big screen, fans can explore this galaxy far, far away with a slew of new comic books. And over the weekend, Entertainment Weekly gave fans their first look at the new Han Solo comic book miniseries.
The five-issue miniseries will be set between the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope and Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back. The story centers on a space race known as the Dragon Void Run. Leia thinks there are spies in the Rebellion, while Han and Chewie give Rebel contacts shelter aboard the Millennium Falcon. The Corellian pilot must fight the pull of his own ego's tractor beam: If he ditches the mission, maybe he can actually win this race. Here's what writer Marjorie Liu had to say about the story.
"This is a Han Solo who doesn't quite know who he is anymore. He doesn't think about politics, and suddenly he's thrust into this life-or-death struggle for beliefs he didn't even know he cared about - and it has changed him. He doesn't want to believe that change, but he has. Han's been dreaming of entering this thing for his entire life. He finally gets the chance, except there's a catch: Leia thinks there are spies in the Rebellion, and she doesn't dare send anyone else to retrieve these vital informants who are on various planets in the system."
The five-issue story will be written by Marjorie Liu, with illustrations by Mark Brooks (Amazing Spider- Man, Uncanny X-Force) and the cover is by Lee Bermejo. While all of these new comics are considered part of the Star Wars canon, don't expect any of this story line to be used for Star Wars Anthology: Han Solo. That movie has already been confirmed to take place before A New Hope. Disney and LucasFilm have reportedly narrowed down the spinoff's casting search to play the iconic character to Miles Teller, Ansel Elgort, Dave Franco, Jack Reynor, Scott Eastwood, Logan Lerman, Emory Cohen and Blake Jenner.
Take a look at the cover artwork for this first issue of this upcoming comic book series, and more artwork below. What do you hope to learn about this beloved hero in this new comic book run? The books will debut in June, but an exact release date has not been given, and it isn't known how frequently the subsequent issues will be released. In the meantime, take a look at the artwork below, and stay tuned for more updates.
