Star Wars: Marvel to release Han Solo comic book in June

It is set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back

Han Solo (LucasFilm)

With the acquisition of LucasFilm, Disney took on a whole lot of Star Wars heritage, including a back catalogue of novels, games and TV shows.

Instead of trying to arrange the ‘canon’ into an easily accessible order, the corporation did away with it all, and decided to create all new material including numerous comic books in conjunction with Marvel (another company Disney own).

So far, they’ve released comics based on the likes of Darth Vader, Princess Leia and Chewbacca, with upcoming comics based on Poe Dameron and C-3PO later this year. Now we’ve had confirmation that a five-part series based on Han Solo is coming in June.

Written by Monstress co-creator Marjorie Liu with art by Mark Brooks, the story will take place between the original 1977 Star Wars and 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back. Appropriately, it will take inspiration from a film also released in that time period, just not Star Wars.


 Han Solo issue one comic book front cover

"I started thinking about this old movie from the ‘80s that I really enjoyed, which is Cannonball Run. I thought, OK, what if this is sort of like Han Solo in Cannonball Run in space?" Liu told Entertainment Weekly.

"It finally came together in the story where there’s this infamous starship race. It’s the pilot dream race. Everyone wants to be in it, everyone dreams of winning it. The race is sort of a cover that will allow him to go on this mission for [Leia], but at the same time, even though the race isn’t a priority, it’s a real struggle for him because he knows he needs to focus, but he’s on the race of a lifetime.”

Of course, Chewbacca will feature as his co-pilot, and Leia will make occasional appearances as well: "I couldn't not write Leia," Liu said, adding that writing the pair together was “a bit of a dream come true.”

She went on to speak about possibly foreshadowing the events of The Force Awakens in her comic book: “It has actually coloured how I think about the book. That’s been sort of an internal conversation with myself, whether I change certain beats, whether I do certain things to reflect this now-future canon that I know is coming down the line for him.

“I haven’t quite answered that for myself yet, but it’s definitely in my head. It can’t not be, because writing the book feels very bittersweet in a way.”