William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Read The First Two Scenes

“Alas, poor stormtrooper, I knew ye not…”

The most popular film franchise in history joins the world’s most famous and well-known writer in William Shakespeare’s Star Wars® : Verily, A New Hope . Accompanied by woodcut illustrations of Chewbacca, C-3PO and Luke Skywalker (in a striking Hamlet pose), this takes the reader line by line through the script of Star Wars in true iambic pentatameters from the Bard of Avon, using the language of his plays, and making it accessible to the modern reader.

This officially licensed re-telling takes you through the familiar story with all the flourishes and trademarks Shakespeare aficionados and scholars will recognise: dramatic soliloquies or telling asides from R2-D2 and other characters, references to the sonnets, speeches from Hamlet, Richard III, Romeo and Juliet, Henry V reworked to fit into the Stars Wars story and characters, exclamations such as “Marry!”; stage directions; a recognisable comedy routine by two guards near the Millennium Falcon as it is held captive on the Death Star, a mourning song from Princess Leia and much, much more!

Feel free to browse through the prologue and first two scenes here and on the following pages.

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Shakespeare’s Star Wars® : Verily, A New Hope is Published by Quirk Books on 2 July, £11.99.