Last year introduced a transition of sorts for Marvel's Star Wars publishing output in 2024 and beyond, with an ongoing series titled Jedi Knights taking readers back to the prequel era of the Star Wars timeline in 2025, while the explosive Battle of Jakku event miniseries marked the move from the Civil War (original trilogy) era to the slightly more peaceful times of the early New Republic. Now, we've learned that Marvel's main Star Wars series will continue in May.
As usual, the refreshed series will begin with a soft relaunch to help onboard new casual readers, while also serving diehard Star Wars fans who are curious about the pre-The Mandalorian events in this new age of peace and prosperity for the galaxy, long before Thrawn's return and the rise of the First Order decades later.
Marvel's Star Wars Issue #1 hits on May 7 and is already available for pre-order according to the official Star Wars website. You can find both the first cover and Leinil Francis Yu's variant – featuring bounty hunter Beilert Valance – below:
The comic will be written by LA Times Book Prize winner Alex Segura (Star Wars: Battle of Jaku miniseries, Spider-Society), with the cover and interior art handled once again by Phil Noto (Ahsoka, The Rise of Skywalker adaptation).
"Alex is an amazing writer and has come up with some great storylines and new characters for this series... It's also been exciting to draw the classic characters in the post-Return of the Jedi era because there's no existing film or TV versions of them," said Noto.
Indeed, this very early New Republic period hasn't been shown in film or TV, and despite some major efforts in novels and video games, there are plenty of gaps in the timeline that need to be filled.
As the vast New Republic era continues to be explored further down the ever-expanding in-universe chronology with The Mandalorian & Grogu and shows like Skeleton Crew and Ahsoka, we have to wonder when and how Marvel's comic books will run into the key characters and events from those on-screen installments. Perhaps we'll finally see Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano's awkward first meeting!
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