Remember that Star Wars: Rogue One prequel comic we told you about back in March? It was going to be a three-part mini-series published before the film comes out in December with a follow-up one-shot afterwards that tells some additional story about the group of Rebels who steal the plans to the original Death Star.
Well, nevermind. Despite being announced by Marvel Comics at Chicago’s C2E2 convention, it now looks as if the miniseries might not be happening at all.
The folks over at Comicbook.com are reporting that orders for the trade paperback compilation of the miniseries have been cancelled, even with Amazon. Furthermore, the book is no longer available for pre-order at the online retailer and that notices were sent out that previous pre-orders will no longer be filled. The site also states that they received no comment from Marvel on the apparent cancellation.
If the book is indeed cancelled, this would not be the first Marvel Star Wars comic to encounter a difficulty in getting published in the tighter continuity controls under which the franchise now operates. A ones-hot comic telling the story of how protocol droid C-3PO wound up with one red arm in The Force Awakens was delayed by months waiting for approval from Lucasfilm – and reportedly JJ Abrams in particular.
It is possible that the proposed storyline for the comic was at odds with the plot of the upcoming Rogue One prequel novel Catalyst, which was also announced at C2E2. Given that Star Wars storytelling is spread across movies, TV, books, comics and games, it is very likely that different sectors of the franchise will come up with story ideas that could contradict another story idea in development elsewhere. Ultimately it comes down to the Lucasfilm Star Wars Story Group to coordinate these groups and avoid conflicts like this one may be. I am sure that this something that they deal with fairly regularly. I just wish we didn’t have to see it play out so publicly.
