Star Wars 25 features the first post-Rise of Skywalker canon story

Star Wars #25 by Charles Soule includes the first story in the canon timeline to take place after The Rise of Skywalker. The last of the four stories in the comic is called “A Eulogy for Snap” and shows Poe Dameron and the other surviving members of Black Squadron mourning the death of Temmin “Snap” Wexley. It takes place during the celebration after the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker, after what was seen of the celebration in the movie.

This is not the first Star Wars story to take place after The Rise of Skywalker that has come out since the movie’s release in 2019, but it is the first canon story to take place after the conclusion of the Skywalker Saga.

Much of the LEGO Holiday Special and LEGO Terrifying Tales both take place after The Rise of Skywalker, as will the soon to be released LEGO Summer Vacation, but none of these stories are canon. The anime anthology series Star Wars Visions also featured two stories taking place after The Rise of Skywalker with “The Twins” and “The Ninth Jedi,” but Visions was not canon either.

“A Eulogy for Snap” is a relatively brief story, but it is an important one. It shows that Star Wars will continue to tell canon stories with sequel trilogy characters and is willing to tell stories that take place after the end of the Skywalker Saga.

It proves that there is more story left to tell for main characters from the sequel trilogy movies like Poe Dameron, but that there is also more story left to tell for characters in this era whose stories have primarily been told in Star Wars publishing, from the deceased Snap Wexley, to  still living characters like Karé Kun, Jessika Pava, and Suralinda Javos.

Since The Rise of Skywalker, Star Wars has been mostly focused on telling stories in three different eras: the High Republic, the 19 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, and the time period of The Mandalorian and its numerous spinoff series.

Hopefully this comic is a sign that the post-Rise of Skywalker era will also gain more focus and join these other eras as becoming a focus of Star Wars storytelling moving forward.

Could any announced Star Wars stories take place after The Rise of Skywalker?

If the Rogue Squadron movie still ends up happening, it could take place after The Rise of Skywalker. The surviving members of Black Squadron seen in Star Wars #25 could appear in that movie, as could other fan-favorite pilots like Wedge Antilles.

Wedge had a cameo during the Battle of Exegol in The Rise of Skywalker and has history with Snap, Poe, and other members of Black Squadron as shown in the Aftermath trilogy and Resistance Reborn novel. Seeing Wedge, Poe, and the others in Black Squadron training new pilots (possibly while hunting down remnants of the First Order) could make for a good story.

There is the possibility that Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie will take place after The Rise of Skywalker. Given his comments about his story being completely disconnected from familiar Star Wars elements, a post-Rise of Skywalker story from him wouldn’t feature any known characters and would take place many years (maybe even centuries) after The Rise of Skywalker.

There is also A Droid Story which was announced at Disney Investor Day in 2020. Other than this being a story of C-3PO and R2-D2 guiding a new hero–told through Lucasfilm’s cutting-edge animation and visual effects–nothing else has been confirmed about this story. A C-3PO and R2-D2 story could take place at many different points in the timeline, including after The Rise of Skywalker.

Regardless of when any of these stories take place, it was refreshing for Star Wars #25 to feature a canon post-Rise of Skywalker story, especially one that provided closure for Snap Wexley and the survivors of Black Squadron. Hopefully more stories in this era will soon follow.

What do you think will be the next canon Star Wars story to take place after The Rise of Skywalker? Let us know in the comments!