Dark Horse to retell Star Wars the way George Lucas always intended, with a giant lizard Han Solo

Before Disney can launch the next generation of Star Wars amid unsettling uncertainty, Dark Horse Comics has revealed plans to adapt George Lucas’ first-draft screenplay, returning Star Wars to the tradition of just remaking the old stuff according to what Lucas really wanted with which fans are more comfortably familiar. “It’s no April Fools’ prank!” the press release from Dark Horse begins, probably unnecessarily, in announcing its intention to retell The Star Wars so that now Han Solo is a six-foot-tall lizard space-fraternizing with Jedi Annikin Starkiller and an older General Luke Skywalker, fighting Sith Knights with their “lazer swords,” and other things that sound perfectly reasonable after years of constant tinkering with the saga. The eight-issue comic launches in September with art by Mike Mayhew (some samples are below) and LucasBooks’ J.W. Rinzler overseeing the text—all with Lucas’ blessing and, presumably, suggestions to add Chewbacca as a farting cat this time, for the kids.