Last Updated on March 16, 2024 by Ryan Scott
Star Wars is one of the most enduring franchises in history, but the movies and TV shows rarely venture into full-blown horror territory. Rare exceptions such as The Mandalorian season 2 episode titled The Passenger, do come about occasionally, but it's far from normal. That said, Lucasfilm and Marvel Comics announced a brand new event series during the recent Star Wars Celebration, and if they are to be believed, it will indeed be going full horror.
Announced during a publishing panel at the massive event in London, Star Wars: Dark Droids will debut in August and be written by Charles Soule (Star Wars: Darth Vader) with artwork by Luke Ross (Star Wars: Darth Maul). Lucasfilm is billing it as a “horror event,” with Marvel Comics calling it a “horror-fueled” epic. So, don't take our word for it, this is straight from the horse's mouth. The events depicted in the series will occur between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. While the specifics are a bit hazy (Lucasfilm likes to keep its secrets), a logline for the book reads as follows:
“Dark Droids will be a rare horror-fueled Star Wars epic set that erupts when a new threat is unleashed throughout the galaxy, corrupting droids, cyborgs, and everything in-between! Who or what is the Scourge — and why is no droid safe? As a corruption spreads from one droid to the next, the Rebel Alliance and the Empire both face chaos! What role does Ajax Sigma from last year’s Star Wars: Revelations one-shot play in all of this? And whose side is he on?”
As is so often the case with media these days, Dark Droids will be a crossover event, with four other titles in Marvel's Star Wars line connecting to the main miniseries. Star Wars, Star Wars: Darth Vader, Star Wars: Doctor Aphra, and Star Wars: Bounty Hunters will also be part of this summer's proceedings. That said, more casual readers can almost certainly get away with just reading Soule and Ross' book without concerning themselves with every single tie-in issue. We also have some preview artwork from the first wave of titles for you to check out.
What's interesting is that Lucasfilm and Marvel are leaning hard into the horror angle. This is not something they do with Star Wars with any regularity. Sure, it's on the publishing side and not in the movies, but it at least shows a willingness for Disney to experiment with that sort of thing. Who knows? Maybe we could get a full-blown live-action horror project in a galaxy far, far away someday. For now, we've got this to look forward to.
Star Wars: Dark Droids #1 hits shelves on August 3.
