Legendary Star Wars Writer Officially Returning For New Luke, Leia & Han Adventure

Published Oct 8, 2026, 11:50 AM EDT

Once head of Screen Rant's Star Wars coverage and co-lead of Superheroes, Tom Bacon now works with the movies and books teams. He's a lifelong fan of the fantasy and sci-fi genres, and loves franchises such as Doctor Who and Marvel. You can find him on Twitter @TomABacon, on LinkedIn @tabacon, or on Muckrack under tombacon.

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Legendary Star Wars author Claudia Gray is returning in a new novel starring Princess Leia, Luke Skywalker, and Han Solo.

Next year is a massive moment for Star Wars; it's the 50th anniversary of A New Hope, and Lucasfilm is celebrating in style. The original cut of the film is returning to theaters for the first time, while Shawn Levy's Starfighter will show what the post-Skywalker galaxy looks like at last. But Star Wars has always been more than just a film franchise, and we're only beginning to learn how Lucasfilm Publishing intend to join the celebrations.

Star Wars News Net has spotted a new solicit on the Penguin Random House site, confirming celebrated author Claudia Gray is returning in a new book set after A New Hope. Star Wars: Princess of the Rebellion will explore Leia's grief after Alderaan's destruction, and send her on a quest for weapons concealed by her father years ago. Here's the full summary:

Princess Leia risks everything to protect the Rebellion as she forges new bonds with Luke Skywalker and Han Solo—from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Star Wars: Lost Stars.

The Rebellion has just destroyed the Death Star, shaking the Empire to its core, but this victory has come at a terrible price. The planet Alderaan has been destroyed, and the Rebellion now must flee its base on Yavin IV.

Still reeling from the loss of her planet, Princess Leia and the other rebel leaders know that a new base must be found, but it cannot be kept safe without a secret cache of weapons hidden by Bail Organa years ago. Bail kept its location well concealed, and no one still living knows where it is. Leia insists that she is the best person to unravel the clues and discover the cache’s location so they can establish a new rebel base.

And so Leia sets out on a desperate quest with her new friends Luke Skywalker and Han Solo by her side. Her path will take her back to people and places she has known throughout her life, not all of whom remain Leia’s allies. Completing this mission will call upon all Leia’s courage as she wrestles with the sorrows of her recent past in order to secure the Rebellion’s future.

Claudia Gray's Return Is Something For Star Wars To Celebrate

Claudia Gray is one of the most respected writers in Disney canon, and she penned some of the best Star Wars books of all time. She has a particularly strong grasp of the character of Princess Leia, writing the incredible books Bloodline and Princess of Alderaan. The first of these was set just before the sequel trilogy era, and explored the end of Leia's political career and the rise of the First Order. But Princess of Alderaan was more important, essentially Leia's backstory, and it was a beautiful tribute to Carrie Fisher.

The title of Gray's new book, Princess of Rebellion, makes this sound like a sequel. It's a similar titling convention to one Lucasfilm followed with a trilogy centered on Padmé Amidala, written by E.K. Johnston. Given that's the case, it's safe to assume Princess of Rebellion is following the same pattern, and we can only hope it means there will be another "Princess" book written by Claudia Gray as well.

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”

🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians

⚡The SithRule of two

⚙️The RebellionA new hope

🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way

👑The EmpireOrder 66

PUNCH IT! →

01

The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?

A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980

✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.

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02

A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.

ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner

✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.

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03

In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?

AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father

✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.

✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.

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04

Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.

AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson

✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.

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05

In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?

A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014

✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.

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06

The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?

ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze

✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.

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07

Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?

AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One

✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.

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08

Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.

ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni

✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).

✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.

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The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing

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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?

⤴ ANOTHER GO

Lucasfilm has been fleshing out Leia's full story over the last few years, after the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Rebecca Roanhorse's Reign of the Empire - Edge of the Abyss revisited Leia a few years later, shortly before she began her political career, and filled in the last gap in the early Leia Organa timeline. Now, we're moving into her Rebel Alliance years. This is certainly the perfect way to celebrate A New Hope's 50th anniversary.

The interesting question, of course, is whether other books are yet to be announced; similar ones honoring Luke Skywalker and Han Solo. Star Wars canon has given readers surprisingly few Luke Skywalker adventures, but that has begun to change after Adam Christopher's superb Shadow of the Sith. Hopefully yet more Star Wars books will soon be announced, focused on other heroes of the Rebel Alliance.