Summary
- A Star Wars comic arc from 1977 featured a plot point of a separate galaxy, pre-dating Ahsoka series.
- Marvel Star Wars comics depicted a conflict with two alien species from another galaxy after Return of the Jedi.
- Ahsoka’s introduction of a separate galaxy is significant, as it is the first time this concept is included in the official Star Wars canon.
While Star Wars surprisingly introduced us to a separate galaxy in 2023’s Ahsoka, one forgotten Star Wars comic arc beat it to this twist 39 years earlier. The main plot of Ahsoka features the titular Jedi and her estranged apprentice Sabine Wren following an ancient path to a different galaxy to both find their missing Jedi friend Ezra Bridger and to stop the threatening Grand Admiral Thrawn from returning and wreaking havoc on the newly formed New Republic. This plot point is not new to Star Wars, and first appeared 39 years ago in the realm of Marvel Comics.
Back in 1977, George Lucas struck a deal with Marvel Comics to produce a series of Star Wars comics covering the events of the original movie. The comic series’ immense success led Marvel to continue it as an ongoing series – and ended up lasting all the way until 1986, three years after the last movie in the original trilogy. Because of this, it was the first piece of Star Wars media that showed what happened after Return of the Jedi. In this time, Han, Luke, Leia, and Lando had a conflict with two species from another galaxy.
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In the Marvel Star Wars comics, the months immediately following the Battle of Endor were intense for the Rebel heroes. The Rebel Alliance itself transitioned into the short-lived Alliance of Free Planets, and Luke Skywalker began training new Jedi – if haphazardly – while a new enemy emerged: the Nagai. The Nagai were a gray-skinned alien species with spiky hair that invaded the galaxy now that the Empire was finally gone. They saw this as an opportunity to find a new home, after being driven out of their old one by the violent and pirate-like Tof species.
This led to a short but deadly war between the remnants of the Empire, the Alliance, the Nagai, and eventually the Tofs, and was the first truly extragalactic conflict in Star Wars history. But this was not the first time something like this happened, as the now famous Yuuzhan Vong were another species hailing from a different galaxy who invaded the main galaxy once they saw it opportune. Years after those two events happened on paper, it seems Star Wars is revisiting the concept in live-action with wherever Thrawn’s plot ends up going in Ahsoka season 2.
Star Wars’ Other Galaxies Are Now Officially Canon
This makes Ahsoka‘s introduced concept of a separate galaxy feel even more significant, as it is the first time this has happened in Star Wars canon. The previous two examples were in the old Star Wars Legends continuity, but Peridea and Ahsoka‘s new ‘far galaxy’ bring this concept triumphantly into canon – and raise the possibility of continuing the pattern of extragalactic invasions. It seems, however, it will only focus on Thrawn for now. Nonetheless, there is certainly a precedent for another galaxy in this universe, making Ahsoka‘s new galaxy fit right into even the oldest Star Wars stories.