Star Wars: The Mandalorian coming to comic books, but when?

(Image credit: Abrams Books)

Update: With this week's premiere of season two of Disney Plus' The Mandalorian, Newsarama was reminded this past June Lucasfilm announced comic books based on the streaming series from Marvel Comics and IDW Publishing (see below) as part of a wave of new Mandalorian products across multiple publishing media.

However, unless rush solicited or published digital-first the earliest either publisher could release Mandalorian comic books to comic book shops and bookstores would be February 2021, well after season 2 concludes.

Neither Marvel nor IDW responded to a request for an update on their publishing plans when contacted this week.

Original story follows

Lucasfilm has announced plans for a new line of Star Wars comic books based on the Disney Plus streaming TV series The Mandalorian, which focuses on the titular bounty hunter and his trials and tribulations protecting an infant – colloquially known as 'Baby Yoda' – from malicious villains that want to learn the secret of the child's extensive Force powers.

Announced as part of a wave of new Mandalorian products across multiple publishing media, Lucasfilm's plans call for comic books from both Marvel Comics (who share Lucasfilm's parent company, the Walt Disney Company, and who publish the regular Star Wars comic line), and IDW Publishing, who publish the Star Wars Adventures all-ages comic line.

Though the specific Mandalorian comic books planned from Marvel and IDW haven't been outlined, Lucasfilm also announced plans to adapt the plot of The Mandalorian as an all-ages graphic novel in Random House's Screen Comix line. Titan, publisher of numerous licensed and original comic books, was included in the list of publishers who will create "magazine, novelty, and coloring and activity titles" based on The Mandalorian.

Doug Chiang's cover illustration for The Art of the Mandalorian, one of the non-comic book titles in the publishing line, seen here, was released alongside the announcement.

The Mandalorian debuted as an hour-long weekly TV series in November 2019 on the Disney+ streaming service, quickly dominating pop culture conversations thanks to its winning premise, adorable Baby Yoda, and high production values. A second season, helmed again by season one showrunner Jon Favreau, is scheduled to debut on Disney+ in October.

The new Mandalorian-centric publishing line is planned to roll out starting in fall, and continuing through winter 2020 and spring 2021.

I've been Newsarama's resident Marvel Comics expert and general comic book historian since 2011. I've also been the on-site reporter at most major comic conventions such as Comic-Con International: San Diego, New York Comic Con, and C2E2. Outside of comic journalism, I am the artist of many weird pictures, and the guitarist of many heavy riffs. (They/Them)