Marvel will publish new “Star Wars” comics beginning in 2015, the same year Disney and Lucasfilm will release a new “Star Wars” film, the companies said on Friday. Marvel published the first “Star Wars” comic book in 1977 and continued to do so for nine years, but Dark Horse Comics claimed the license in 1991.
Marvel has regained the license, which Disney, Lucasfilm and Marvel announced on StarWars.com Friday.
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“Dark Horse Comics published exceptional ‘Star Wars’ comics for over 20 years, and we will always be grateful for their enormous contributions to the mythos, and the terrific partnership that we had,” Carol Roeder, director of Lucasfilm franchise publishing at Disney Publishing Worldwide, said in a statement. “In 2015, the cosmic adventures of Luke, Han, Leia, and Chewbacca will make the lightspeed jump back to Marvel, to begin a new age of adventures within the Star Wars universe.”
Disney acquired Lucasfilm in October 2012 and three months later hired J.J. Abrams to direct a new “Star Wars” movie. The acquisition raised various rights issues, including the rights to make future “Indiana Jones” movies. Disney has gradually resolved many of those, and this is the latest example.