If you’ve been missing your short-form Star Wars storytelling, good news: From a Certain Point of View, the anniversary anthology format Del Rey used to weave new stories around the events of A New Hope for its 40th anniversary is back. And it’s, well, striking.
Lucasfilm has confirmed that, to celebrate Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back’s 40th anniversary this year, From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back will launch in November. As with the anthology for A New Hope, it will bring together 40 stories from 40 different authors, all weaving in and out of the chronological events of Empire, adding context to familiar scenes, telling new tales, and, if it thematically matches up with its predecessor, going to some really weird and interesting places.
Which is great! One of the joys of From a Certain Point of View wasn’t just what it added from a contextual point of view to the world presented in A New Hope. But also how its vast roster of authors brought different styles, tones, and ponderances to the Star Wars universe, leveraging all the years and years of storytelling in the galaxy far, far away that had happened since the movie to enrich it not just a canonical level, but crucially also a thematic level.
If we can expect the same sort of thing—and we likely should, given that this is for all intents and purposes the same project just for another movie—then getting to see so many voices tackle Empire, a significantly darker, more spiritual, and more complex movie than its predecessor, is very exciting indeed.
Lucasfilm has yet to reveal the full list of authors involved with From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back, but many have already taken to Twitter to share the news of their contribution.
Excited and so so honored to contribute to this Star Wars anthology for charity! #ACertainPOVStrikesBack Can't wait to share this story. 💕🌈💕 pic.twitter.com/rrh8Hqk1Fu
— CB Lee 🏴☠️ BLM, science and peace (jock thembo) (@cblee_cblee) June 12, 2020
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One more time? Well… why not! Not every day I get to share a table of contents with the sorts of writers in this monster; feeling very lucky to have gotten the invite. (Just look at the amazing authors in the first one!)#FromaCertainPOVStrikesBackhttps://t.co/PVluXYYSBv
— Alexander Freed (@AlexanderMFreed) June 12, 2020
Hello, what have we here?#FromaCertainPOVStrikesBack pic.twitter.com/bHWyMgTJPs
— Tracy Deonn – Updates Only (@tracydeonn) June 12, 2020
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Okay, okay. I can't talk about the story I'm contributing to #FromaCertainPOVStrikesBack YET–you'll know more soon enough–but I can say that the clues are out there… https://t.co/l678YtSaBx
— austin walker (@austin_walker) June 12, 2020
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I have a small announcement to make.
I am part of this amazing thing, which means I got to write a Star Wars story, which means the little girl who was Leia SEVERAL Halloweens running is STILL crying in disbelief. #FromaCertainPOVStrikesBack https://t.co/a6iiPAwUve
— Catherynne M. Valente (@catvalente) June 11, 2020
Every one of the authors involved with the anthology has forgone compensation for their contribution, and the proceeds from the book will instead be donated to First Book, a nonprofit providing books, educational materials, and other reading tools to educators helping children in need, on top of a $100,000 donation from Penguin Random House and a donation of 100,000 books from Disney and Lucasfilm to the organization.
A full list of all 40 authors will be revealed on Monday, June 16. From A Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back is set to release on November 10.
Update: 6/15 10 a.m. EST: Lucasfilm has now revealed the full list of writers contributing to the anthology, as well as a few teases for some of the stories. Austin Walker’s will follow the “unlikely partnership” of Dengar and IG-88 as they chase Han Solo for the Empire, while Hank Green’s tells the story of a naturalist caring for Tauntauns on Hoth. Tracy Deonn will explore the mysterious Dark Side Cave on Dagobah in her story, while Martha Wells examines Ugnaught society on Cloud City. The last two stories teased were Mark Oshiro’s tale of the Wampa that Luke maimed and escaped from, Seth Dickinson “interrogates the cost of serving a ruthless empire aboard the bridge of a doomed Imperial starship.”
The rest of the authors are as follows:
Tom Angleberger
S.A. Chakraborty
Mike Chen
Adam Christopher
Zoraida Córdova
Delilah S. Dawson
Alexander Freed
Jason Fry
Christie Golden
Rob Hart
E. K. Johnston
Lydia Kang
Michael Kogge
R.F. Kuang
C.B. Lee
Mackenzi Lee
John Jackson Miller
Michael Moreci
Daniel José Older
Amy Ratcliffe
Beth Revis
Lilliam Rivera
Cavan Scott
Emily Skrutskie
Karen Strong
Anne Toole
Catherynne M. Valente
Django Wexler
Kiersten White
Gary Whitta
Brittany N. Williams
Charles Yu
Jim Zub
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