Putting the heroes of Marvel in the same story as Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia, and Darth Vader the the kind of imaginitive crossover that I used to dream up as a kid with my action figures! Now it’s actually happening, and Kevin Smith says writing it has felt a lot like putting together an MCU movie.
Smith is writing Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles, the first official comic book crossover between Marvel and Star Wars. The five-issue event takes the characters and events of A New Hope and drops them into Marvel’s Earth-616 universe, creating one seriously crowded superhero and sci-fi adventure.
The story kicks off when a reality-shattering spell causes the events of A New Hope to unfold within the Marvel Universe.
That means Luke Skywalker, Leia Organa, Han Solo, Chewbacca, Darth Vader, and the Galactic Empire suddenly exist alongside Marvel’s heroes and villains.
Things get even crazier with Doctor Doom entering the picture alongside Vader and the Empire.
While talking with Jason Mewes on the Jay & Silent Bob Are In The Hizzouse podcast, Smith explained that he decided to approach the comic much like he would an MCU film.
“Write it as if you were doing this as an MCU movie. Like a script almost, right? Totally. I mean, it’s very dialogue-heavy, but, you know, it’s very adventure-heavy too.
That MCU comparison comes down largely to the massive ensemble Smith is juggling. This isn’t simply a story about a couple of Marvel characters bumping into Luke and Han.
He’s moving between several characters, individual story threads, and story beats that have to connect and eventually pay off across five issues.
Smith explained just how complicated that became while writing the final chapter: “So many storylines, threads to cross over. So many characters to service. Like, look at all those characters. And that’s not even everyone who’s in the book, for heaven’s sake.
“So that’s a lot of, like, all right, so now we got to write his storyline. Now we’re going to write her storyline. Now we got to come back to this. Now we got to get back to that. And I’m still in issue five going, like, oh my God, I set that up and I got to pay it off.”
When you’ve got this many major characters sharing one story, everybody needs something worthwhile to do while the larger plot keeps moving. Smith also has the added challenge of bringing together two fictional universes with very different histories and personalities.
The possibilities are pretty fun. Luke Skywalker, Leia, Han Solo, and Chewbacca interacting with Marvel’s Earth-616 characters is already enough to make this worth checking out.
Throwing Doctor Doom, Darth Vader, and the Galactic Empire into the same comic makes the whole thing even more ridiculous in the best possible way.
David Marquez is illustrating the series, which launches in January 2027 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of A New Hope. The five-part event will then release monthly, with the final issue arriving in May.
Smith treating the project like an MCU movie gives us a pretty good idea of the scale he’s shooting for. With a huge cast, intersecting stories, plenty of dialogue, and an adventure spanning Marvel and Star Wars, Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles sounds like it’s aiming to make its historic crossover count.
