George Lucas’ Original Star Wars Screenplay Has A Dark Horse Comics Adaptation
Popular science fiction has loads of unmade projects in its history, but few have the Holy Grail status of George Lucas’ original version of Star Wars. It had long been archived away and seemingly lost to non-Lucas eyes, at least until a future successor needed to make a quick buck. Luckily it never came to that, and the Star Wars universe has been able to chug along for many decades now.
It was exciting news when comics giant Dark Horse acquired the rights to George Lucas’ 1974 rough draft screenplay, entitled The Star Wars!
Writer and LucasBooks executive editor J.W. Rinzler was one of the driving forces behind securing The Star Wars! script, and he worked with artist Mike Mayhew to bring Lucas’ words to their illustrated life. Rinzler talks about the experience in the press release:
While researching in the Lucasfilm Archives I’ve found many treasures—but one which truly astounded me was George’s rough draft for The Star Wars. His first complete imaginings were hallucinating to read—mind blowing.
While working with George on another book project, I once asked if we could adapt his rough draft. He was hesitant. Years later, with Dark Horse’s invaluable help, we showed him a few drawn and colored pages of what it might look like. He gave us the okay.
Proving The Star Wars! differed from the original by more than just an article and a punctuation mark, it was described as “a tale of fantastic adventures, daring escapes, ‘lazer swords,’ romance, and monsters.” Well, that wasn’t so different. Oh, there’s more.
“A story of Jedi Annikin Starkiller and General Luke Skywalker, an alien named Han Solo, and evil Sith Knights.”
Now we’re getting somewhere with The Star Wars! If there’s anything this world needs, it’s another version of Han Solo, and thankfully the question of Harrison Ford’s age doesn’t come into it, as he was both an alien and a bunch of drawings instead of a real person. Also, there was no early word on the percentage of incest that will be included.
The Star Wars! series will made its starkilling debut in September 2013, and fans took to it immediately.
The Star Wars! story differs significantly from the original film. It follows an older General, Luke Skywalker, who is protecting the royal family of the planet Aquilae from the evil Galactic Empire. He is aided by a young Jedi apprentice named Annikin Starkiller. Princess Leia falls in love with Annikin rather than Han Solo, who appears as a green-skinned alien.
In The Star Wars!, Darth Vader is mostly absent, and Prince Valorum is the main Sith villain. The Force is not depicted as a mystical power or ability, and the Jedi serve as bodyguards to the Emperor rather than peacekeepers.
