With Disney buying LucasFilm last year everyone was expecting a big shift of how ‘Star Wars’ was done all across the board with the latest hit being the comic franchise. So what happened since the buyout? Well for starters George Lucas was out which ended up being the butt of quite a few parodies. Also the ever popular video game art known as LucasArts was shut down. ‘Star Wars: Detours‘ and ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars‘ were cancelled with 3D re-releases of all of the films postponed indefinitely.
So today it’s been announced that that The Walt Disney Company’s Lucasfilm Ltd. and Marvel Entertainment are once again working together to bring ‘Star Wars’ to the printed page. This is a piece of bittersweet news as on the one hand the first ‘Star Wars’ comic ever was printed by Marvel in March of 1977 and they continued the run for nine years until in 1991 when Dark Horse Comics took it over. The Dark Horse runs have included ‘Dark Empire’ and ‘Star Wars: Legacy’, which are some of the largest fan favorites of all time and their ongoing series and mini-series have almost all been hits.
According to Carol Roeder, the director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing,
“Dark Horse Comics published exceptional Star Wars comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had. In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe.”
On Marvel’s end of things Dan Buckley says:
“We here at Marvel could not be more excited to continue the publication of Star Wars comic books and graphic novels. The perennial brand of Star Wars is one of the most iconic in entertainment history and we are honored to have the opportunity to bring our creative talent pool to continue, and expand Star Wars into galaxies far, far away.“
While Disney’s Andrew B. Sugerman says that they are “incredibly excited by this next chapter in the Star Wars saga. Bringing together the iconic Lucasfilm and Marvel brands to tell new stories will allow us to continue to thrill lovers of the original Star Wars comic books and entertain generations to come.”
The announcement has caused ripples in the Force as of millions of Dark Horse fans suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced. Dark Horse’s own Mike Richardson knows that as well as has stated:
“All things come to pass. So too, do all licensed deals.” and that it’s ” ironic that this announcement comes at a time when Dark Horse is experiencing its most successful year ever. For obvious reasons, we have prepared for this eventuality” Don’t give up hope yet for your favorite current titles because In the meantime, 2014 may be our last year at the helm of the Star Wars comics franchise, but we plan to make it a memorable one. We know that fans of the franchise will expect no less. The Force is with us still..”
Clearly with Disney’s close ties to Marvel we all knew it was only a matter of time before the studio that was publishing the comic would change. It’s a shame though as Dark Horse truly has had an amazing run on the series. Will Marvel be able to keep up the high quality ‘Star Wars’ stories that we’ve seen to date? Only time will tell.
For fans of Dark Horse’s ongoing take on ‘Star Wars’ what do you think? While this was the obvious move for Disney was it the right one?
Share your thoughts below!
