Moderated byKristen Baver, editor-in-chief ofStarWars.com, the Lucasfilm Publishing panel at New York Comic Con spotlighted current and upcoming releases from a galaxy far, far, away. Panelist included actor and Star Wars Reads AmbassadorAhmed Best, along with creativesMatthew Reinhart,Will Sliney,andCharles Soule.
From novels to comics to oversized books, this panel had a ton of insight into the Star Wars schedule. While overcoming some technical issues the audience was able to peep Matthew Reinhart’s pop-up storybook for The Mandalorian and Grogu, a fun children’s book for fans of all ages. For his approach to the book he said that this was “for younger readers to explore and tell the story of Grogu and Mando…they’re finding family, …they’re having their adventures.”
With the technical issue resolved, the next book discussed was Marvel’s Jar Jar #1 co-written by Best from a few months back, but brought back for Star Wars Reads month.“I wanted to, in this comic book, to kind of age Jar Jar up a little bit,” Best explained. “He is now a senator and he did give emergency powers to Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. I really don’t think he understood the consequences of his actions, which is why I wrote this.”Audience members were given a copy of the book to see Jar Jar’s growth.
Next up was Charles Soule to talk about his and Sliney’s current run on the Marvel series The Fall of Kylo Ren. “The idea here is to tell a story that bridges some of the moments between Episodes 8 and 9,” Soule explained, “But that also completes the journey that we started in The Rise of Kylo Ren, because that was really where the character of Kylo Ren began and emerged is in that story.”
As a tease, Sliney’s first three black-and-white, unlettered pages of issue 5 were shown:
A few other Marvel titles were mentioned, including the previously-announcedStar Wars: Ahsoka – Escape From Thrawnseries, releasing ahead of season 2, as well as the Hope Assemblescrossover between the Marvel Universe and the Star Wars galaxy, set to celebrate the 50th anniversary ofStar Wars. Fans were treated to a look at some of the variant covers for the crossover.
After that reveal, Baver brought up more panelist to talk Star Wars Reads, including the host of Star Wars StoriesJordan Hembrough,Dr. Christopher Thomas Kempshall, andKiersten White.
And as the first Star Wars Reads Ambassador, Best was very insightful in discussing his role.“I really want to be an analog influencer,” he said. “That’s the only AI I actually give a f*** about. I want to be an analog influencer. I want to be able to go and sit with kids and read with them between the pages of books, because it will launch you into a world and you’ll be able to hear a voice that you have never heard before. And it’s the voice in your head of the stories that you can trust. And so this is such an honor to be an ambassador for Star Wars Reads, and I really want to use this and use this platform to get more young people to fall in love with reading like I did.”
Of her middle grade novel, Hiding From The Dark, White said that,“When (editor) Mike Siglain and I were first envisioning this, he was like, ‘What if we did Darth Vader as Michael Myers fromHalloween?’ And I was like, ‘Say less. I’m on it.’”
Dr. Kempshall said he pitched Star Wars – Star Pilots: a History of Space Combat with:“…any given day of the galactic Civil War, someone is surviving the very worst day of their life. And that is very understandable. A person goes to war, has a horrible time, makes a lot of sense to us. The problem is that simultaneously, somebody else is having the best day of their life. And that’s a very weird thing for us to try and kind of understand and try and kind of appreciate from somebody’s, somebody’s experience. And across that whole spectrum is individuals experiencing the war in the wrong particular way, on any given time of day of the war. And that interesting kind of bridge in the middle, that’s where the history looks, and that’s where the kind of the interesting, slightly odd narrative potential works. So, what we tried to do with the book is to give you the spread of experience of what it means to go to war and fight it from the cockpit of an X Wing or a TIE fighter.”
The panel also offered brief previews of dozens more upcoming fiction and non-fiction releases, including tie-ins and spinoffs from the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter film starring Ryan Gosling.
The last announcement was more insight into the Star Wars/Dungeons and Dragons collaboration with a Core Book,Tyro Squadron Adventures.The upcoming Star Wars Celebration in April will give fans a chance see a live play of the games.
Stay tuned toThe Beatfor more news fromNYCC ’26.
