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After a decade of wondering, Star Wars fans are finally going to get to find out what the stars of the original trilogy of movies got up to in the space between 1984’s Return of the Jedi and 2015’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens — which just so happens to be exactly the period that Lucasfilm is aggressively expanding into with The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and other live-action projects.

Although a small number of novels and comic book stories have offered appearances of Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, and the other core original Star Wars characters in the three-decades gap between the fall of the Empire and the rise of the First Order — with Luke also cameoing in The Mandalorian, of course — the majority of what those particular fan-favorite characters got up to in that time period has been purposefully left a mystery... but that’s going to change starting in May.

Marvel’s new Star Wars comic book series, written by Alex Segura with art from Phil Noto, will show what happens to Luke, Leia, Han et al as the start of the New Republic in what the publisher promises will represent “Marvel’s most revelatory contributions to the Star Wars mythos yet,” with additional series set during the same time period promised for launch later in the year.

That last part is important, because a lot is happening in that time period from a franchise point of view these days. This is, after all, the same time period that the Disney+ series The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, The Book of Boba Fett, and Skeleton Crew take place in, as well as 2026’s The Mandalorian and Grogu feature, which will bring Star Wars back to the big screen for the first time since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. There’s a lot of material for Marvel to choose from in expanding out its Star Wars publishing line in this era, especially as the Disney+ series are known to be building to a larger storyline that will eventually head to the big screen.

Whether or not there will be significant crossover between the old guard as represented in this new comic book series and the next generation of Star Wars storytelling onscreen remains to be seen — but it’s certainly eye-catching that, for the first time in more than a decade, all of the forces in Star Wars media (no pun intended) seem to be concentrating on the same era at the same time.

Star Wars #1 will release May 7.

Get to know, understand, and love the Star Wars franchise more with our Star Wars watch order, guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies & TV shows, and all the Star Wars movies and Star Wars TV shows ranked.