Dark Horse Comics to adapt original George Lucas draft for The Star Wars

Star Wars: Episode VII might have been hogging the sci-fi headlines of late, but Dark Horse Comics looks set to beat the new movie to the punch, by releasing a new comic-book series in September 2013 entitled The Star Wars .

The new series will adapt George Lucas’ initial draft for the first Star Wars film, which includes some crucial tweaks to the well-loved characters of the eventual movies.

Gone then is Obi-Wan Kenobi, with the master-apprentice relationship assumed by grizzled war veteran Luke Skywalker and young farmhand Annikin Starkiller. The Emperor is simply a crooked politician, while (whisper it) lightsabers don’t exist! (But lazer swords do...)

Take a look at a promo video for the series, below…

"You can teach a college course on how he got from that story to his first Star Wars film," says writer J.W. Rinzler. "Francis Ford Coppola read the rough draft and thought it was pretty good. He wasn't really sure why George was changing it."

"I'm sure [ Lucas ] knew quite well in 1974 that there was no way you could film this script," Rinzler adds. "He changes locales sometimes twice on a page. Any studio head reading that would have just had a heart attack. He would have thrown it in the garbage by the time he got to page 20."

The new comic will hit the shelves on 4 September 2013, giving fans plenty to tide themselves over with until Episode VII arrives. Meanwhile, you can take a look at some of the artwork below…

( click image to enlarge )