Star Wars: Battle of Jakku will finally tell the "lost story" of the 30-year gap between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens

Cover art from Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku - Insurgency Rising #1
(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

In the Star Wars universe there's a 30 year gap between the end of Episode VI _ Return of the Jedi and Episode VII – The Force Awakens. While the evil Emperor Palpatine seemingly died at the end of Jedi (though we all know better than that now, for better and worse...), the Galactic Empire itself continued to be a threat for years afterwards until reaching its final defeat at the battle of Jakku, the desert planet where we first met Rey.

Marvel revealed a couple of months back that it would be telling the story of that cataclysmic conflict and now we have the full details. Star Wars: The Battle of Jakku will be told – appropriately enough – as a trilogy of limited series titled: Insurgency Rising, Republic Under Seige, and Last Stand. This epic saga will be written by Spider-Society writer Alex Segura and drawn by Leonard Kirk, Stefano Raffaele, Jethro Morales, and Luke Ross. 

The road map for Marvel's Star Wars: Battle of Jakku event.

(Image credit: Marvel Comics)

"It's an unbelievable honor to be able to tell this lost story of Star Wars history, alongside so many amazing artists, in the pages of the three Battle of Jakku limited series," said Segura in a statement about the new trilogy. "Our story will be epic in scope – involving all the major characters you love, plus some new, exciting additions to the mythos. We'll not only give readers a front-row seat to the final battle of the Galactic Civil War – we'll reframe the aftermath of the Battle of Endor and introduce a new, menacing threat that will keep our heroes guessing. The goal for all of us is to turn up the volume and make sure this adventure stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the other stories of the era. As the Empire collapses, a new darkness arises!"

There's a sense of closure with Marvel's Star Wars comics at the moment, with both the regular Star Wars and Darth Vader monthlies ending with their 50th issues in September, and the High Republic comic line seemingly wrapping up with a final phase that starts in 2025. It's nothing to worry about, however – it's already been confirmed that the Marvel's Star Wars comics will continue in a new setting that has yet to be revealed. 

Star Wars: Battle of Jakku – Insurgency Rising #1 is published by Marvel Comics on October 2.


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Will Salmon
Comics Editor

Will Salmon is the Comics Editor for GamesRadar/Newsarama. He has been writing about comics, film, TV, and music for more than 15 years, which is quite a long time if you stop and think about it. At Future he has previously launched scary movie magazine Horrorville, relaunched Comic Heroes, and has written for every issue of SFX magazine for over a decade. He sometimes feels very old, like Guy Pearce in Prometheus. His music writing has appeared in The Quietus, MOJO, Electronic Sound, Clash, and loads of other places and he runs the micro-label Modern Aviation, which puts out experimental music on cassette tape.