Canceled Darth Vader Comic Has Fans Worrying About Star Wars: Episode IX

In these past few weeks, there’s been a Star Wars: Episode IX theory making the rounds that next year’s trilogy-closer will see the return of Darth Vader – not necessarily in body, but at least in spirit – and the basis for this idea stems largely from the material we’ve seen so far in the comics. With that in mind, some fans are taking it as a bad omen that the previously planned Star Wars: Shadow of Vader miniseries has been canceled.

This development comes about after writer Chuck Wendig was fired from the project for what he describes as “too much politics, too much vulgarity, too much negativity” in his Twitter activity. Since some fans were anticipating that Shadow of Vader could provide further set-up for the title character’s return in Episode IX, speculation has emerged that Disney could be planning to take the villain out of the film as well.

Regardless of whether Vader is or isn’t appearing in J.J. Abrams’ upcoming movie, this particular line of reasoning seems full of holes. For one thing, the previous speculation about the character coming back was based on thin evidence to begin with, stemming primarily from a previous Darth Vader comic in which a late Sith is seen inhabiting the life of the helmet.

What’s more, with the Star Wars movies taking clear priority over the comics in Lucasfilm’s plans, it’s hard to imagine the cancelation of this series leading to any significant rewrites in next year’s release. It would be one thing if the comic was canceled because of changes to the film, but it seems we have a very clear reason for why this comic won’t be made, and it has nothing to do with the actual content of any Star Wars release.

With Lucasfilm holding back on the details of Star Wars: Episode IX, it’s understandable that fans might be anxious to jump on any development as a clue of what’s to come. But when the evidence is this thin, perhaps it’s best to just sit back and remind yourself that all will be revealed when the film hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.