A little while ago it was announced that the current main Star Wars comic line, written by Charles Soule and bridging the gap between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, will come to a close with issue #50 later this summer.
Fans naturally began wondering what was next, and given the fact that the prior Star Wars line was set between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, there was hope that we’d finally be jumping to the era after Return of the Jedi. And, while it sounds like it might not be as ongoing as those previous two lines were, it was recently confirmed that, yes, Star Wars comics are jumping beyond the Battle of Endor.
Billed as “a new era of Star Wars comic book storytelling”, the story of the fall of the Empire and the Battle of Jakku is coming to the pages beginning in October 2024. Picking up on the current Star Wars series written by Soule, Alex Segura is writing a maxi-series titled Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku: Insurgency Rising. The four-part series begins on October 2, 2024, with issue #1, which is described as follows:
In the wake of the battle of Endor, can Luke, Leia and the nascent new republic stave off an unexpected — and deadly — new threat?
A defiant imperial takes center stage — and goes on the offensive against the New Republic! Leia makes a startling discovery in the forests of Endor! Who are the mysterious and deadly acolytes of the beyond?! What is the new villain’s connection to Darth Vader? All this as the post-return of the Jedi storytelling begins!
Judging by the cover art, it looks like we might already know who this unexpected new threat is. While it’s already been established in books that Gallius Rax and Grand Admiral Rae Sloane take center stage leading the Imperial forces, the art looks to depict Governor Adelhard and his forces. He appeared in a mobile game released alongside the Journey to The Force Awakens material in 2015, and while it wasn’t very successful and didn’t garner a ton of attention, it looks like they’re bringing back portions of Uprising for this story. The story told of how Adelhard, the governor of the Anoat Sector (which included Bespin), kept news of the Empire’s fall from getting around by issuing a total blockade of the sector – forcing rebels to fight back. It seems pieces of that could be pulled into this story.
But it’s also really exciting to read about the Acolytes of the Beyond showing up again, as I’m curious how they’ll factor into the story in increasing ways. This era is one that has appeared in several areas of publishing, and even a video game (Battlefront II), but it’s mostly been in various pieces. To get a fuller story through the comics is thrilling. While it’s only a four-issue series, the fact that the marketing is describing a whole new era of post-Return of the Jedi storytelling makes me think this could only be the beginning.
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