Journey to Solo: A Star Wars Story with must-read novels, comics

The journey to Solo: A Star Wars Story beings with a wide variety of Star Wars canon material; with the likes of Marvel comics and novelizations leading up to the events of the film.

LikeThe Force Awakens and The Last Jedi before it, Solo: A Star Wars Story will have prequel stories leading up to the events of the film. Lucasfilm announced a wide variety of Star Wars novels, young adult adaptations, comics, and even variations for younglings.

Strap yourselves into the Falcon; this is going to be fun ride — much like blazing through the Kessell run in less than 12 parsecs. With more canon material than planets in the Star Wars galaxy coming your way, we’ve narrowed it down to the “must reads” before Solo: A Star Wars Story hits the big screen in just a few months from now.

Entertainment Weekly’s Star Wars expert Anthony Breznican caught up with Lucasfilm Publishing creative director, Michael Siglai, giving us the inside scoop.

Don’t get cocky like Rey and think you can handle this on your own, let the Force guide you with this particular expertise.

Star Wars Last Shot by Daniel José Older

Star Wars ‘Solo’ Comic Books CR: Disney

"“Part of it takes place post-Return of the Jedi, and that’s where we see Han, Leia, a very young Ben Solo, and Lando come into the story,”"

More from Dork Side of the Force

Not every one of the story arcs heading into Solo: A Star Wars Story are prequel stories, with Last Shot taking place after the Original trilogy and the events of the Aftermath series. We will receive our second glance of Ben Solo as a youngling — with his first appearance is an infant in Aftermath: Empire’s End.

"“We bounce around through time. We always wanted to tell a story that had Han and Lando having one adventure after Return of the Jedi. At the same time, we really liked the idea of contrasting that with seeing them much earlier in their lives. A crime lord comes looking for the owner of the Millennium Falcon, but mistakenly thinks it was Han Solo at the time, but it was really Lando — which gets Lando mixed up in something else Han did that was Han’s fault. All these years later, the two of them have to right a wrong from much earlier in their history.”"

The novel jumps back and forth within the Star Wars timeline, adding more depth to the long history between Han Solo and Lando Calrissian. And, aren’t both of these covers just stunning? The artwork alone is worth picking up the hard copy of the book.

Part of it takes place between Solo and A New Hope, and that focuses on Han and Chewie, and that’s where we get Sana Starros for the first time.

You might recognize the name Starros from the main Marvel Star Wars comic line

Star Wars: Most Wanted, by Rae Carson

Star Wars ‘Solo’ Comic Books CR: Disney

Star Wars: Most Wanted, by Rae Carson

"This is about the younger, young Han Solo. We’ll see what it was like for these two kids from Corellia to survive the seedy streets of this industrial world. They’re definitely products of their environment, and this story shows that."

From this description and the teaser trailer for Solo, this confirms that the film will either take place with a “younger, young” Han Solo or have flashbacks to his formative years.

Photo Credit: Lucasfilm

Getting a taste of Correlia before we see it for the first time on the big screen will be exciting, as well as more background on what formed Han Solo into the scoundrel that Leia accuses him of being. We will surely see glimpses of Han’s “heart” of gold, which Snoke references in The Last Jedi.

Star Wars ‘Solo’ Comic Books CR: Disney

Marvel Star Wars: Lando – Double or Nothing

"It’s focused on Lando set during an incident right before the film, with backstory about Lando and L3."

The Childish “Landbino” is in full effect on this fantastic artwork cover for the upcoming Lando comic. This comic is promising after the original Lando Marvel run delivered the goods — with a story of how Lando stole one of Emperor Palpatine’s’ private yachts. It was a surprise, but a welcome, as this story hopes to be, as well.

The Art of Solo: A Star Wars and the Visual Dictionary for the Han Solo film.

For those of you hardcore Star Wars fans, these books are for you, with the pages revealing Easter eggs and behind the scenes access for the development of Solo: A Star Wars Story. Lucasfilm guru and Twitter fan-favorite Pablo Hidalgo is the author of the visual dictionary, while Phil Szostak has the honors of composing the art from the film.

For more information on the other releases for Solo, check out more behind the scenes exclusive access from EW’s Anthony Breznican.

Next: Original trilogy characters who might appear in Solo

Solo: A Star Wars Story premieres May 25, 2018, worldwide.

Home/Solo: A Star Wars Story