Via StarWars.com, Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm have announced “Han Solo & Chewbacca,” a new series by writer Marc Guggenheim and artist David Messina, set shortly before the original Star Wars film. The book follows the two smugglers, and Greedo (“in better times, apparently”), as they carry out a heist for Jabba the Hutt. It was not made clear if this is a miniseries, or an ongoing.
Guggenheim said in an official interview that the book is basically “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, but with Han and Chewie as Butch and Sundance.” It will introduce a Marshal (“think the corporate equivalent of a bounty hunter”) who is constantly on their tail, based on the “super posse” from the classic film.
He promised readers will “get a better sense of why there’s so much animosity” between Han and Greedo, and that T’onga from “Star Wars: Bounty Hunters” will also make an appearance, “along with a few other characters who have been established in the comics. Then there’s the character who we meet at the end of issue one, who no one will see coming.”
Guggenheim also commented it was interesting to explore Han’s past in the wake of the prequel film Solo: A Star Wars Story. “One of the things I’ve been playing with is the tension between the ‘hopeless romantic’ Han reveals himself to be at the end of Solo and the hard-bitten cynic we meet in Episode IV,” he said. “To be very reductive about it, I’ve searched for opportunities to force Han to choose between his lesser and greater angels.” As for Chewie, he said “he’s good to go with the flow and let Han call the shots because he knows that, no matter what, Han’s got his back,” and that he hopes to explore events from the Wookiee’s perspective at a later point.
“Star Wars: Han Solo & Chewbacca” #1 will be released in March 2022, with a main cover by Alex Maleev, and variants from Adam Hughes, Phil Noto, and Declan Shalvey. Head to StarWars.com for more from Guggenheim in the meantime.
