It’s a pretty good time to be a fan of either Star Wars or Marvel — and the future is looking even better.
Star Wars is barreling toward its 50th anniversary in 2027, and Lucasfilm is marking the occasion with a huge slate of new stories from across the galaxy. At the same time, some of its most exciting ideas are coming from unexpected places: Star Wars: Visions’ breakout story The Ninth Jedi is reinventing what it means to be a Jedi, while Shawn Levy’s upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter promises a Top Gun: Maverick-inspired return to big-screen space combat.
And over at Marvel, the franchise is gearing up for some major moments. Spider-Man: Brand New Day has crossed $1 billion at the box office, and now all eyes are turning toward Avengers: Doomsday, where Doctor Doom looks ready to make good on the movie’s ominous title. And if waiting for the movie isn’t enough, Marvel is already exploring what happens when Doom takes on the multiverse elsewhere.
So what’s left for two franchises with this much going on? Apparently, introducing Luke Skywalker to Captain America.
That’s exactly what Marvel Comics and Lucasfilm are doing with Star Wars/Marvel: Hope Assembles, the first official crossover between the two universes.
The galaxy far, far away just got a lot closer
First revealed by Entertainment Weekly, Hope Assembles is a five-issue limited series written by Kevin Smith, with art from Ultimate Comics: Spider-Man and Uncanny X-Men artist David Marquez. The first issue arrives in January 2027.
And this isn’t just another Star Wars comic published by Marvel. Hope Assembles is bringing the classic A New Hope-era cast directly into Earth-616, the main continuity of Marvel Comics, where they’ll meet some of the universe’s biggest heroes and villains.That means Luke Skywalker and Captain America will finally share a page. Han Solo and Chewbacca will encounter Wolverine and the Guardians of the Galaxy. Princess Leia will find herself alongside Black Widow and Black Panther. Obi-Wan Kenobi gets perhaps the strangest welcoming committee of all: Deadpool, Daredevil, Hawkeye, and the Human Torch.
The villains aren’t being left out of the fun, either. Early art for the series puts Darth Vader in the company of Doctor Doom, Thanos, and Ultron — a collection of powerful characters who seem extremely unlikely to work well together.
So how do you actually get the Death Star and the Daily Bugle into the same universe? Here’s the official description of the project: “Hope Assembles will anchor the Star Wars franchise firmly in Marvel’s 616 universe as Earth’s Mightiest Heroes see the events of A New Hope unfold on Earth and before their very eyes after a reality-shattering spell.”
Smith has apparently been waiting a long time to make exactly this kind of mess. The Clerks filmmaker and veteran comics writer told EW that he subscribed to Marvel’s Star Wars comics in the early 1980s, but always wished Spider-Man or Doctor Doom might wander into the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han.
“With Hope Assembles, Kevin Smith has written a true love letter to Star Wars, to Marvel, and to comics in general,” Michael Siglain, creative director at Lucasfilm Publishing, told EW. “And combined with David Marquez’s incredible art, we’ll see the heroes and villains of Star Wars team up and battle with the heroes and villains of Earth-616. Hope Assembles is exciting, unpredictable, and heartfelt. In short, it’s comics at its best, and we can’t wait for readers to experience both franchises as never before.”
The timing also makes Hope Assembles feel like more than a random corporate-universe collision. The series begins in January 2027, the year A New Hope turns 50, and will run monthly through its fifth and final issue in May.
And after half a century of Star Wars, there are admittedly not many franchise firsts left. Chewbacca meeting Wolverine is one of them.