In 1974, George Lucas wrote a screenplay called The Star Wars, which would originally become the film that introduced the world to Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and the rest of the ever-expanding Star Wars Universe. While that screenplay was hidden away for decades, it was not forgotten, and Lucasarts has teamed up with Dark Horse to adapt the original story into an eight issue series, which will launch in September.

Dark Horse is honored to announce a dream project: working with J.W. Rinzler, executive editor at LucasBooks, and artist Mike Mayhew (Avengers) to adapt the rough-draft original screenplay which spawned the biggest franchise in film history!

Mayhew (MYSTIQUE, THE PULSE) will be working with J.W. Rinzler, who is adapting and writing this comic where Luke Skywalker is an older Jedi general, Han Solo is a tall reptillian, and the story also features a jedi named Annikin Starkiller.

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.

There's a lot of excitement over at Dark Horse, as editor Randy Stradley called this project a "dream come true." We'll finally get to see the original Star Wars story BEFORE it became what we know it as this September.

What do you guys think of digging up the original screenplay for this series?

This
This is true right?
Oh God I hate April Fools Day

Not sure how I feel about this. hmmm

I think I'm going to shut off the internet until tomorrow. TT__TT

They're saying the same over on Bleeding Cool.

Not sure if that actually makes this more credible or less.

I don't know about the rest of you, but I am very tired of Star Wars having a re-imagining, or a expansion, or prequels, or interquels and all that stuff. Remember when it was just three good movies?

What this man said.

Real or not, Lucasarts is the video game division of Lucasfilm, so I doubt that they have anything to do at all with this (theoretical) comic release. God, get it right. :P

Anyway, I think it'd be rad if this was cool. What Star Wars seemed to be before it became Star Wars seemed way more hard sci fi than fantasy in space. It'd be cool to see it.

DC is also re imagining their Universe where everything in continuity happened in 5 years!

This is pretty awesome. A Star Wars comic I might read.

@savagedragon: the hell you say?

I'll come up with an opinion tomorrow. Today makes it to hard to figure out if it's real or not.

can someone explain the premise?is it the star wars original trilogy retold or alternate version of it?or is it a prequel?

This is a pretty cool idea. I've discussed recasting of the original trilogy for years and it'd be cool to see it reimagined.

"Frustrated that his story was too difficult to understand, Lucas then began writing a 13-page treatment called The Star Wars on April 17, 1973, which had thematic parallels with Akira Kurosawa's The Hidden Fortress.^[26]By 1974, he had expanded the treatment into a rough draft screenplay, adding elements such as the Sith, the Death Star, and a protagonist named Annikin Starkiller. For the second draft, Lucas made heavy simplifications, and introduced the young hero on a farm as Luke Starkiller. Annikin became Luke's father, a wise Jedi knight. "The Force" was also introduced as a supernatural power. The next draft removed the father character and replaced him with a substitute named Ben Kenobi, and in 1976 a fourth draft had been prepared for principal photography. The film was titled Adventures of Luke Starkiller, as taken from the Journal of the Whills, Saga I: The Star Wars. During production, Lucas changed Luke's name to Skywalker and altered the title to simply The Star Wars and finally Star Wars"

If any of the news is for real, it would be more along the lines of a one-time 'alternate reality' take.... but being April Fools, I have a hard time believing it for now.

I don't know about you, dear-viners, but this is one beautiful piece of artworks!

@dementedtheclown: Its true man, Ive been reading it for the past year and a half!

what part of the movies is that page from?

want it to be true so baaad

This sounds and looks really cool!

Just waiting for this.

Interesting

Never been the biggest SW fan, but I'n interested in this.

Mat told me this is real. I'm freaking excited. lol

Got to be an April fool

if this is true i'm buying it

I'd dig something like this if they actually did it.

I hope not. This is a day 1 purchase for me

I don't play practical jokes on 4/1.

I act like a normal human being on April Fools Day, which, in itself, is the biggest practical joke of all.

Awesome!

Man, I hope this is true.

Please don't play with my emotions. I want this to be true.

MINDFREAK!

Feck. I can't tell if this is real or no, but it would be neat. If its real I hope its full of plenty of Mcquarrie's original designs.

Also, Lucas had many (MANY) drafts of Star Wars before the settling on what we saw in theaters. This also makes me doubt this articles validity. Oh well, here's to hoping.

@onemoreposter: It's legit. Link

Looks cool

LucasArts = Videogames

Dark Horse = Losing rights of comics related to Star Wars next year.

So, it's fake.

This is legit. Sounds pretty cool to me. Looks like they're going to incorporate some of McQuarrie's designs. First ...the amazing new Legacy series, now this news. Dark Horse's quality in its Star Wars line has improved big time. I hope Disney realizes this and lets DH keep the license. If they are to remain hands off like with Marvel this is what just might happen.

@onemoreposter: Vader was a bounty hunter

I don't know if this is true but if it is you shouldn't fix what is not broken. I'm not sure how much more you can add to the story of the original trilogy I mean they gave almost everybody in the mos eisley bar a name,personality,and a back story. They even gave a storm trooper extra his own story. What else can be said that hasn't already been said.

@colonelrunaway: IMDB has been posting this as well. I am really keen on reading this.

Wow, this better not be an April Fool's act because I would be putting down my cash now for this! I'm seriously considering not even trade waiting for this because it seems that cool!