Cast your mind back to the inaugural teaser for The Force Awakens and you’ll no doubt recall that inspired shot of a downed Star Destroyer rising above the sands of Jakku. Surrounded by rusty old X-wings and remnants of the Galactic Empire, these battered artifacts evoked memories of a time gone by, when the Rebel Alliance sought to destroy Darth Vader and his tyrannical regime.
It turns out that legacy was woven into the fabric of Star Wars: The Last Jedi, too, given Lucasfilm’s lucrative sequel allowed its finale to unfold on Crait, the far-flung mineral world that was once home to an old Rebel base. That abandoned outpost turned out to be the Resistance’s last resort in The Last Jedi, as Kylo Ren and General Hux hunted down the tattered fleet.
That prolonged chase sequence essentially forms the body of Rian Johnson’s follow-up, but thanks to the newly-unveiled Star Wars: Storms of Crait, we now know why the Rebel Alliance abandoned Crait in the first place. Drawn up by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker, the comic features Han, Luke, Leia and Mon Mothma, who ordered the Rebels to retreat as the planet fell into the hands of Trusk Berinato, an old acquaintance of Bail Organa.
As fate would have it, Trusk ordered Crait to be turned into a mining outpost, before he eventually sided with the Empire following the death of Bail Organa. From the comic strips above, you’ll notice that Leia and Han actually tried to approach Trusk, before deciding to abandon Crait altogether in order to avoid any needless deaths.
If you’re curious, we’ve included the full synopsis for Storms of Crait below, which is now available via Marvel Comics.
This December, the soon-to-be thrilling Star Wars: The Last Jedi rocks movie screens across the world…and the reverberations are felt all around a galaxy far, far away! First up, learn the secret of the mineral planet Crait! Long before it became a battleground between the Resistance and the First Order, Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa led the Rebellion there in search of a new home! From writers Ben Acker & Ben Blacker (Star Wars Join the Resistance) and artist Marco Checchetto (Star Wars: Shattered Empire) comes the backstory to this winter’s biggest adventure.
Elsewhere on the Star Wars news cycle, The Last Jedi is now the second highest-grossing film of 2017, after Rian Johnson’s sci-fi pic leapfrogged Wonder Woman on the box office charts. It’s said to be closing in on Beauty and the Beast, too, and will likely top out at around $1.6 billion when all is said and done.