A new Marvel-published Star Wars comic has teased how Luke’s lightsaber went from falling through Cloud City to becoming Maz Kanata’s gift to Rey in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Star Wars #4 (H/T ComicBook.com) goes some way to answer a question most fans will have pondered since the young Skywalker’s lightsaber took a tumble after his climactic duel with Darth Vader at the end Empire Strikes Back. It’s, uhh, in a pile of trash and spare parts, eventually recovered by a pig-nosed Ughnaught-looking creature. Lucky he got there before a compactor did.
What happens next will surely be revealed in the forthcoming issues, but at least we now know its temporary resting place – which is especially useful in light of a prior issue suggesting that an unknown hooded figure caught the lightsaber. That was, presumably, a vision of a possible future, or one of Luke’s fears manifesting itself. For now, his father’s old weapon is in the hands of a tinkerer – and who knows how Maz finds herself in possession of the legendary lightsaber.
The ongoing Star Wars comic series has been a treasure trove for fans of the original trilogy, with a previous chapter also telling an unseen side to Leia’s pre-Return of the Jedi story, as a captive of the Empire and encased in Carbonite.
For more from the unexplored time period between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, be sure to pick up Star Wars #5 when it releases on April 22.
Relive the Skywalker Saga with our guide on how to watch the Star Wars movies in order.
