While Mark Hamill’s Luke Skywalker will be part of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, reportedly as a Force Ghost, the character is also cropping up in other Star Wars media. The officially-licensed Star Wars comics from Marvel have provided extensive backstory and fillers to explain gaps between different parts of the saga, giving fans some intriguing connections between characters and existing movies. And a new issue of the comics series will continue this approach by linking Luke to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
The plot, which you can see in Star Wars #71, takes place between A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back. Luke is part of a Rebel mission to find a new base, and is trying to throw off the Empire by travelling to Sergia, an Inner Rim world. During his time on the planet, Luke meets Warba, a junker with some Force sensitivity, who teaches the young Jedi about some of the concepts behind his power and how it’s been used in the past. This story adds to previous comics that have explored Luke’s relationship to the events of Rogue One.
Part of this teaching includes reference to the Guardians of the Whills, and their mantra “I am one with the Force. And the Force is with me.” Fans of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story will remember this as a line from Donnie Yen’s Chirrut Îmwe, as he goes into battle against imperial troops. Luke is then inspired by the teaching, connecting his development as a Jedi to the Whills and a lesser-explored side of the Force in the universe.
It’s certainly an inventive use of existing Star Wars mythology by the comic’s creative team of Greg Pak, Phil Noto, and Clayton Cowles, and one of many you can find if digging into the Marvel comics. Given the closure that Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker should provide for Luke, we’d love to see more of these details crop up in other media, adding to what we’ve already heard about how the new movie will reveal some surprising (and spoiler-y) backstory for the character.
Published: Sep 26, 2019 04:27 pm