Did Marvel Just Reveal A Premature End To The Flagship 'Star Wars' Comic?
Image Source: Wookieepedia
Over the past few days, two Bluesky profiles that follow Star Wars print media have chronicled concerning changes to an upcoming trade paperback collection of Star Wars (2025).
The Star Wars Splash Page Podcast and Star Wars Books & Comics collectively noticed that the originally listed paperback, due for release in January of 2026, which was set to collect issues one to six of the recently started series, was removed or altered from retailers that included Amazon and Target. Where it is still listed, it now contains issues one to ten, with a release date pushed back to May or June of next year. It also has a new title, Star Wars: New Republic, a surprisingly definitive description for what is meant to be a comic run set during the wider era of the New Republic.
Media is no stranger to adjusted titles, shifted focuses in a body of work, or release date changes. Like every comic book publisher, adjustments have been seen in other projects from Marvel Comics. However, these changes are very concerning as it is rare for trade paperbacks of ongoing comic series to collect large numbers of issues together, instead often favoring a small number of issues, often covering a single comic arc. However, completed and shorter series get this treatment.
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The Yoda series, of ten issues, received a single trade paperback, as did the Battle of Jakku maxi-series, written by Alex Segura, who is also handling the 2025 comic fun. For Star Wars (2025) to seemingly be of the same length as those two series is quite a shock, especially given the expectation that this series is to be an ongoing comic run. The 2015 and 2020 runs, in contrast, have dozens of comic issues each. It may be that these changes are simply a switch in formatting by Marvel, one that will begin to be seen in their other Star Wars comics or properties in the coming weeks, but the lack of clarification is concerning.
Another, smaller concern possibly connected with the series switching from an ongoing to a limited series is the possible cancellation of a second printing of Issue 1 for the 2025 series. This has been a recent trend for Marvel, where they order a second printing of a new series’ first comic, only to often quietly cancel it later. This problem, coupled with the issues discerning what is going on with Star Wars (2025), suggests that Marvel Comics should look at improving its communication with fans and readers. We, as outsiders, are looking at these changes and are assuming the worst because of a lack of concrete information. Hopefully, all of this turns out to be a misunderstanding, but at present, it seems likely that the flagship Star Wars comic is coming to a premature end.
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