For those of you wondering what Star Wars might have looked like if George Lucas had stuck to his original vision, you're about to find out. Thirty-six years after the release of A New Hope, comic book publishers Dark Horse have produced an eight issue long adaptation of one of the earlier drafts of A New Hope set for release later this year. The comic book series has been adapted from George Lucas's original scripts by J.W. Rinzler, the writer of The Making Of Star Wars (which featured extracts of several early scripts), with artwork by Mike Mayhew. The trailer for this alternate retelling of A New Hope has recently been released by Dark Horse... The story is broadly the same as A New Hope since it was always loosely based on Japanese director Akira Kurosawa's film The Hidden Fortress but the earlier drafts feature a large number of differences in both the wider Star Wars universe and the main characters. Originally Luke Skywalker filled the Obi-Wan role as a grizzled old general in his mid-sixties while the young hero of the story was Annikin Starkiller, son of Jedi-Bendu Kane Starkiller. Oh, and Han Solo was a green-skinned alien. From this trailer, we can see that Star Destroyers, ships that vaguely resemble ARC Fighters, and a variant of the Death Star will all feature, as well as Darth Vader getting some more impressive Lightsaber action than he did in A New Hope with some other Knights Of Sith (as they were originally named). Whether or not the script being adapted is one of the drafts featuring Wookiees attacking the Death Star remains to be seen but even if it's not (though, let's be honest, that concept alone would make it a sure-fire bestseller), this is still looking like an excellent tribute to George Lucas's earlier work. The series is due for release in the US on September the 4th but a UK release date has not yet been confirmed. But we're sure that, however it takes for this to reach the UK, it will definitely be worth the wait. So until then, as the phrase was written in the earlier scripts, may the Force Of Others be with you.