Though the expanded universe of comics, books and other assorted media in the** Star Wars** franchise’s orbit was confirmed as headed for a date with the Death Star in terms of its canon consideration, that doesn’t mean there will be a floating cloud of rubble in story terms between Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi and** The Force Awakens**, oh no. Disney is planning a wide variety of books to fill the narrative gap.
According to Entertainment Weekly, Disney Worldwide Publishing and Lucasfilm Press have been hammering out deals with several publishers including** Star Wars** stalwarts DK and Disney stable mates Marvel, which is already at work on comics set in the universe.
With the umbrella title Journey To Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the books will be aimed at different age groups and explore what Luke, Leia and co. were up to in the intervening years. Which has, of course, been figured under the sort of tight security you might expect from the franchise.
“The Force Awakens is an extraordinarily, heavily guarded storyline. To track it, a lot of top-secret meetings were happening up in San Francisco as we worked through this program,” says Disney Publishing Worldwide’s Andrew Sugerman tells EW. “The partnership with the story group and the editorial team always had to be true to the sanctity of the film while making sure that we find these moments to introduce hints, clues, and puzzle pieces. Without revealing what those pieces are, it will just allow readers to speculate about the new film: What could a location mean, or what could a character mean?”
In addition to the Journey series, currently planned for around 20 titles, there will be books re-telling the story of Jedi, The Empire Strikes Back and A New Hope from the perspective of different characters. The idea is to brief younger readers on the Galaxy Far, Far Away before they see the new movie. Greedo will tell his side of things at last! (No, probably not).