The comic book emphasizes the destiny of Boba Fett and his fellow bounty hunters, first seen in a brief scene on The Empire Strikes Back. It introduces a new character to the saga, Dash Rendar, a Han Solo-type smuggler, who acts primarily as a replacement for Han Solo and as a part of the action sequences. It shows Princess Leia's secret search for Boba Fett, the construction of Luke Skywalker's new lightsaber and Darth Vader's search for his son. Han Solo is still frozen in carbonite, being taken to the gangster Jabba the Hutt by the bounty hunter Boba Fett. The novel also resumes the storylines of the usual characters. His goal is to take Darth Vader's place at Emperor Palpatine's side. It introduces Prince Xizor, the alien overlord of the largest criminal organization in the galaxy. The main plotline is told in Steve Perry's novel, Shadows of the Empire, published by Bantam Books. This story is significant in that Lucas reportedly said he would have made a story like this into a movie if he had had the time and effort to do so back in the early 1980s.Ĭover of the Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire book featuring art by Drew Struzan The entire Shadows of the Empire project, along with The Force Unleashed, though not technically a film, can be collectively considered the closest project to a film in the Star Wars official continuity, without actually being a film.

Several products were released, including a novel, a Junior novelization, comic book series, video games, trading cards, a soundtrack, role-playing games, toy figurines, vinyl dolls, a series of Micro Machines toys, statuettes, model kits, a series of action figures and vehicles, and so on.

Shadows of the empire evolution