Marvel’s editor-in-chief regularly tells stories about how things get done in his weekly Substack, “Man with a Hat.” In the most recent post on August 25, the longtime editor and comic book veteran specifically addressed the process of creating Star Wars comics, which is a collaboration between Marvel’s editorial staff and Lucasfilm’s story developers. Read on to learn more.
The topic came up when a subscriber named Mark Paglia asked a question about the possibility of a The Acolyte comic that would continue (and complete) the storyline of the Disney+ series of the same name, which, as you know from our coverage, was just canceled. Before we go any further – and in case you didn’t read the top of the page – no, Tom Brevoort hasn’t even hinted at confirmation of such a comic, nor are we implying in this article that there will be one.
However, Brevoort explained how a Star Wars comic gets the green light.
“In the case of ‘Star Wars,’ for example,” he writes, “our editorial team meets with the Lucasfilm Story Group a few times a year to work out what would make sense to release in the coming months.”
For context, the Lucasfilm Story Group is a writers’ coalition formed in 2012 when Lucasfilm was acquired by Disney. A CNN profile of the group calls it a “central authority on all things Star Wars,” while Wired describes it as “a ‘Star Wars’ writers’ room and custodian of the timeline.” In short, if you want to do a licensed Star Wars story, you need their OK.
“In these meetings,” Brevoort continues, “ideas can come from both sides, but in the end we usually agree on a specific release schedule that fits into Lucasfilm’s larger overall plans for Star Wars across all media.”
So, as you can see, the situation Brevoort describes here is not a case of Marvel “working for” Lucasfilm or vice versa, but rather a sort of meeting of the minds.
“I don’t know if this makes a sequel to Marvel The Acolyte more or less likely,” Brevoort concludes, as if anticipating how some Reddit user will twist this very article, “but that’s the way it is.”
