In about a month, we’ll have hit the five-year anniversary of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Surprisingly, Disney and Marvel are marking the occasion by bringing out what some had long considered lost media: its comic book adaptation.
Earlier in the week, Marvel revealed the Rise of Skywalker miniseries would begin its five-issue run next February, retaining its original creative team of Jody Houser and Will Sliney and the promise of featured material that wasn’t present in the film. In case you’ve forgotten, the first issue was set to come out in June 2020, but the COVID-19 pandemic impacted Marvel’s pipeline and prevented it from releasing comics for over a month. But even after things were sorted out a month later, priorities seemed to shift to giving shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi and The Mandalorian their own comic adaptations. Marvel never gave the comic a new release date, and last year, cover artist Phil Noto eventually just shared a textless cover he made for the miniseries.
Despite recent efforts to try exploring Rise‘s aftermath (big emphasis on “try“), Marvel’s apparently got its act together for the comic. It’s also basically acting like no time’s passed: editor Mark Panicca noted it comes as Sequel Trilogy characters have gotten a “resurgence of interest”—Kylo Ren, for example, is getting his own solo comic a few weeks before this lands. Of the adaptation, Panicca said Houser’s script “captures the impact of these iconic moments between the film’s heroes and villains, while the art by Will Sliney and dazzling colors by Guru-eFX give a visually unique experience of this epic finale.”
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’s five-issue adaptation will kick off on February 26, 2025, if all goes to plan.
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It’s been a long time coming, but Star Wars is ready for its youngest heroes’ perspective on the galaxy far, far away.