Long before he met Leia Organa, Han Solo was sweet on Qi’ra, played in Solo: A Star Wars Story by Game of Thrones actress Emilia Clarke. However, by the time the 2018 Star Wars movie was over, Han and Qi’ra had embarked down different life paths, and it doesn’t look like Clarke will be reprising the latter anytime soon, if at all. Fortunately for fans of Qi’ra, she’s been featured in Star Wars comics in recent months, and we’ll be seeing even more of her in this medium later this year.
Marvel Comics’ Star Wars crossover event War of the Bounty Hunters launched in June, and at the end of the main event’s second issue, Qi’ra was unveiled as a major player in this story. After War of the Bounty Hunters wraps up this October, and the following month, Qi’ra will take center stage for her own limited series. The five-issue Crimson Reign is being written by Charles Soule and illustrated by Steve Cummings, and it will “reshape the history of the Star Wars galaxy during the Age of Rebellion.”
As Solo: A Star Wars Story viewers will remember, Qi’ra was last seen in that movie heading off to rendezvous with Darth Maul, who was the leader of the Crimson Dawn crime syndicate at the time. By the time War of the Bounty Hunters unfolds, Qi’ra is leading Crimson Dawn, and in an interview with IGN, Charles Soule said that while he was wiring the current crossover event, Qi’ra formed in his mind as the narrative “secret weapon” he would deploy in Crimson Reign at a later date. Soule continued:
While Qi'ra plays a huge part in War of the Bounty Hunters, that event is really a Boba Fett story. I have a bigger story I'm going to tell with Qi'ra and Crimson Dawn, and it's all connected to the reasons she kicked things off in War of the Bounty Hunters in the first place. You'll learn more about that in the closing pages of War of the Bounty Hunters #5, out in October, and I think fans have no idea how exciting and new this story will feel.
I won’t share any spoilers on how War of the Bounty Hunters is progressing, though needless to say that because the event is set between The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi, unfortunately Han and Qi’ra aren’t getting a proper reunion since Han is frozen in carbonite during this time. Nevertheless, these comics have allowed Qi’ra to re-enter the Star Wars picture following Emilia Clarke’s sole outing as the character, and however War of the Bounty Hunters ends, it’ll lay the groundwork for Qi’ra to take center stage in Crimson Reign. Charles Soule also noted that Crimson Reign will continue a trilogy that he began with War of the Bounty Hunters, so evidently there’s a closing chapter to this particular saga fans of Soule’s Star Wars work can look forward to at some point.
Although many Star Wars fans have frequently campaigned on social media for Disney and Lucasfilm to make Solo 2, given Solo: A Star Wars Story’s underwhelming commercial performance, it looks increasingly unlikely a sequel will ever happen. Though that’s not to say Emilia Clarke would never reprise Qi’ra, as she was moved by the character being included in the comics, and if the upcoming Lando Calrissian limited series for Disney+ follows Donald Glover’s younger incarnation of the character, maybe there’d be a way to fit her into that story. These days though, Clarke is keeping busy shooting Marvel’s Secret Invasion series.
Crimson Reign #1 will be available for digital purchase and your local comic book store this November. As always, keep your eyes locked on CinemaBlend for the latest and greatest news on upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows.
