'The Last Jedi': New details emerge about 'Star Wars' mystery planet via Marvel

Resistance ski speeders in action on the planet Crait in <em>Star Wars: The Last Jedi.</em> (Photo: Lucasfilm)
Resistance ski speeders in action on the planet Crait in Star Wars: The Last Jedi. (Photo: Lucasfilm)

Star Wars: The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson promises that the mineral planet Crait will serve as the setting for one of the biggest battles in the upcoming Episode VIII. But it turns out the remote world is well known to Luke Skywalker.

As Marvel Comics revealed Friday, the planet’s backstory will be the focal point of an upcoming miniseries titled Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Storms of Crait, written by Ben Acker and Ben Blacker and illustrated by Mike Mayhew.

In Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it becomes a battleground between the Resistance and the First Order, but that wasn’t the first time Crait became a place where heroes and villains clashed in their fight for the galaxy. Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa once took up arms on Crait and led the rebellion as they as they searched for a new home — and a new base for the Rebel Alliance.

“We’re excited for the opportunity to tell this story,” editor Jordan D. White says in a press release. “Tying the new sequel series in more tightly with the original trilogy era, and helping make the galaxy far away a little more fleshed out.”

<i>Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Storms of Crait</i> cover. (Credit: Marvel Comics)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi — Storms of Crait cover. (Credit: Marvel Comics)

We get a hint of the planet’s importance in the film’s trailer, where Resistance ships, called ski speeders, race across the desert plains to face an encroaching line of First Order AT-M6 assault walkers (an upgraded version of the old Imperial AT-ATs) coming over the horizon. The speeders, which will be commanded by Poe Dameron, kick up the surface coating of white dust, revealing Crait’s reddish soil underneath.

As the filmmaker explained to Yahoo Movies, “It’s a remote mineral planet. It’s like a thin layer of salt over this red base. And there’s a battle that takes place on it.

One of the film’s major battle sequences will take place on <a href="https://www.i929fm.com/movies/star-wars-last-jedi-rian-johnson-explains-weird-new-planet-trailer-204549320.html" rel="nofollow" data-ylk="slk:a remote mineral planet called Crait;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas;outcm:mb_qualified_link;_E:mb_qualified_link;ct:story;" class="link  yahoo-link">a remote mineral planet called Crait</a>, Johnson told Yahoo Movies. Resistance speeders approach a line of First Order walkers in the distance. (Credit: Lucasfilm)

“Graphically it’s very exciting. You got a tiny little glimpse in the trailer. It gives you a hint of what it’s going to be like. … I can’t wait to show more of it.”

We’ll see more of the planet when The Last Jedi arrives in theaters on Dec. 15, followed by Storms of Crait on sale Dec. 27.

Watch The Last Jedi trailer:

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