Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire

• 1. Introduction

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  Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire began with a question posed in 1994: could Lucasfilm deploy the full commercial apparatus of a movie release without making a movie? Publishing director Lucy Autrey Wilson met with Bantam editor Lou Aronica that year to discuss upcoming Star Wars publications. Aronica's suggestion went far beyond books. He proposed a coordinated multimedia event covering every product category a film would generate. The ambition was to explore every commercial possibility of a full motion picture release. No film would be shot.

  Lucasfilm had reason to move quickly. George Lucas was preparing Special Editions of the original trilogy for 1997 theatrical release. The Shadows project was designed to reawaken interest in the franchise ahead of those releases. Dark Forces game designer Jon Knoles shaped one of the most consequential early decisions. He pushed the story's setting to the period between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. No Star Wars novel had explored that era before. Into it would come a new mercenary, a scheming crime lord, and a conspiracy that nearly claimed Luke Skywalker's life.

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• 2. The Novel

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  Author Steve Perry was commissioned to write the story that would serve as the backbone of the project. His credits included novelizations of The Mask for Bantam and Aliens material based on Dark Horse Comics graphic novels. To prepare for writing Darth Vader, Perry read the franchise's first spin-off novel, Splinter of the Mind's Eye. He was studying how the character had been written in that first spin-off.

  The publishers set one creative demand Perry refused to follow. They instructed him to make Xizor's attempt to seduce Princess Leia successful in the story. Perry declined, concerned about fan backlash. He followed their other instructions more willingly. The publishers wanted a substitute for the incapacitated Han Solo, and Perry invented Dash Rendar for that role. Fans later described Dash as primarily a vehicle for Solo-style dialogue. In the novel, Dash is a Battle of Hoth veteran. Leia, Chewbacca, and Lando Calrissian hire him to help locate Boba Fett's ship and the frozen Han Solo aboard it.

  Prince Xizor, a Falleen who leads the criminal syndicate Black Sun, drives the central conspiracy. His scheme is to kill Luke Skywalker and displace Darth Vader at Emperor Palpatine's side. The novel's climax unfolds above Coruscant: Vader's Star Destroyer shoots down Xizor's repulsor craft and his Skyhook base. Debris from the explosion hits Dash's ship, the Outrider, apparently killing him. A prequel novel was planned, assigned to author Charles Grant. It was cancelled when Lucasfilm Licensing moved from Bantam to Del Rey Books. Perry has publicly expressed support for adapting the Shadows story as an animated film.

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• 3. Comics

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  John Wagner wrote and Kilian Plunkett illustrated the six-issue comic series, with Steve Perry serving as story consultant. The comics take a different angle from the novel, centering on Boba Fett and the bounty hunters glimpsed briefly in The Empire Strikes Back. Excerpts ran in Nintendo Power magazine during the series' publication.

  A character named Jix, a hireling of Darth Vader, carries much of the plot. Jix infiltrates Jabba the Hutt's gang of swoop bikers, led by a figure called Gizman, to stop their attempt on Luke Skywalker's life. Two mini-comics were packaged with Micro Machines toys, produced with three alternative covers, while a further mini-comic came with Ertl model kits. A pop-up comic called Battle of the Bounty Hunters expanded the storyline into a different format. A one-shot titled The Jabba Tape, also illustrated by Plunkett, follows Gizman around the time of Return of the Jedi.

  Steve Perry returned to the Shadows line with a five-issue sequel, Shadows of the Empire: Evolution, later collected as a trade paperback. It was Perry's first comics writing credit. Set just after Return of the Jedi, the story follows Guri, Xizor's human-replica droid. She seeks to alter her android programming and discover whether she has a human side. Both bounty hunters and Rebels led by Luke Skywalker pursue her, because the secrets in her android mind make her a valuable asset. Pencils were by Ron Randall, inks by P. Craig Russell, and colors by Dave Nestelle.

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• 4. The Video Game

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  LucasArts built the game in collaboration with Nintendo, releasing it in December 1996. It arrived as one of the first titles for the Nintendo 64, five months after the console launched. The game became the best-known product in the entire Shadows line. A Windows version followed in September 1997.

  Players control Dash Rendar across four mission groups. The first drops Dash into the Battle of Hoth alongside the Rebel forces. The second has him confront bounty hunter IG-88, who leads him toward Boba Fett. The third places Dash in Mos Eisley to fight swoop bikers, saving Luke Skywalker's life. He then helps Luke recover the plans for the second Death Star. The fourth takes Dash, Luke, and Lando Calrissian to Coruscant to rescue Princess Leia from inside Xizor's stronghold.

  The two platform versions presented the story differently. The Windows release included full-motion cinematic cutscenes with sound effects and voice acting. The Nintendo 64 version substituted artwork panels with on-screen subtitles, a consequence of the console's technical limitations. Portions of the Shadows score, composed separately for the project, were integrated into the game's audio.

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• 5. A Score Without Film

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  Varèse Sarabande Records was commissioned by Lucasfilm to publish the project's score. Producer Robert Townson had collaborated with composer Joel McNeely on The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles and selected him for the assignment. The music was performed by the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Chorus.

  McNeely wrote in the liner notes that composing for a novel rather than a filmed picture gave him an unusual degree of creative freedom. He put it this way: 'Unlike with film music, I have been allowed to let my imagination run free with the images, characters and events from this story. I have also had the luxury to loiter as long as I like with a character or scene.' Familiar themes from the Star Wars films surface across the album. The main Star Wars theme and 'Carbon Freeze' appear in track one. 'The Imperial March' and 'The Force Theme' are heard in track eight, and 'The Imperial March' returns in track ten.

  Sound designer Ben Burtt contributed a poem to the liner notes. It described an ancient battle on Coruscant, and McNeely drew on it in some of his compositions. Burtt's lyrics reference the Droids animated series, a project he had also been involved in writing. The disc also included an interactive computer track. It contained concept art, creative team profiles, and background material on every element of the project. The liner notes paired each track with a plot summary from the novel. They turned the album into a chapter-by-chapter audio guide to Perry's story.

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• 6. Toys and Trading Cards

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  Kenner anchored the merchandise line with a full range of action figures covering new and returning characters. Xizor and Dash Rendar received dedicated figures, and classic characters appeared in story-specific disguises. Chewbacca was dressed as Snoova, a Wookiee bounty hunter. Luke Skywalker wore an Imperial uniform. Two-pack sets paired new and classic figures, including a Boba Fett and IG-88 combination. Kenner also produced vehicles, among them Dash's ship the Outrider and Boba Fett's Slave I.

  Lewis Galoob Toys, known for the Micro Machines miniature line, developed a separate Shadows product range. It included three sets of miniatures and a boxed Action Fleet set with two swoop bikes, their riders, and four small articulated figures. Ertl released plastic model kits including Xizor's spaceship the Virago and a figure of Xizor himself. The collectible company Applause issued vinyl figures of Dash and Xizor. A cold-cast resin statuette grouped Xizor, the Emperor, and Darth Vader together.

  The Topps Company produced a 100-card set drawing from the novel, comics, and game. The cards were painted by Greg and Tim Hildebrandt. The twin artists were known for a widely recognized poster from the original 1977 Star Wars release. Cards were printed on 20-point card stock with double UV-coating, with full-bleed images measuring two and a half by three and a half inches. Seventy-two of the hundred cards storyboard Perry's novel. Six each were assigned to vehicles, the comic series, and the game. Each pack contained nine cards.

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• 7. Beyond the Legends Label

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  When The Walt Disney Company acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, it inherited a vast catalog of licensed Star Wars fiction. In April 2014, Lucasfilm reclassified most novels and comics produced since 1977 as non-canonical, placing them under the label Legends. Shadows of the Empire became part of that reclassification. The 1996 Return of the Jedi radio drama by Brian Daley had already referenced the project's events. The Imperial landing craft was developed for the 1997 Special Edition of A New Hope. But its first screen appearance came in Shadows of the Empire, released the year before.

  Several Shadows elements crossed into official canon despite the Legends designation. The Falleen species and Black Sun crime syndicate both became canon in 2013 episodes of The Clone Wars. Those storylines depicted Darth Maul's Shadow Collective absorbing the Falleen. A modified version of Rendar's Outrider, a YT-2400 light freighter, appeared in Star Wars Rebels. Rendar is mentioned by name in the 2018 tie-in book Solo: A Star Wars Story - Tales from Vandor. The 2019 Galaxy's Edge cookbook included a recipe titled 'Xizor Salad.' The 2021 crossover War of the Bounty Hunters revisited the same narrative era. Crimson Dawn stole the frozen Han Solo in that story, and both Black Sun and Xizor were mentioned.

  Between 1996 and the Disney acquisition, the Shadows characters accumulated a growing collection of follow-ups. The 1997 novel Specter of the Past referenced Xizor. The Bounty Hunter Wars trilogy, published between 1998 and 1999, explored his and Boba Fett's backstories. The 1999 computer game X-Wing Alliance included missions featuring Dash Rendar. He assists in capturing the Imperial freighter Suprosa, which carried second Death Star design schematics. A 2000 one-shot comic by Ryder Windham called Shadow Stalker expanded on Jix's adventures before the Shadows events. Rendar's Outrider also appeared in the 2002 game Bounty Hunter. A short story focused on Rendar appeared in a 2011 issue of Star Wars Insider. In 2023, Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy said that characters like Dash Rendar come up 'all the time' in creative discussions. Nothing specific had been announced.

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