"Into the Great Unknown," a comic book story spanning ten pages, is a non-canon tale authored by W. Haden Blackman. The narrative follows Han Solo and Chewbacca as they pilot their starship, the renowned Millennium Falcon, into the uncharted depths of hyperspace, resulting in a crash landing on Earth's Pacific Northwest. Solo meets his end, killed in an attack by Native Americans. One hundred twenty-six years later, his skeleton is unearthed by the archaeologist Indiana Jones, who is on a quest for the mythical Sasquatch (who is in fact Chewbacca).
This story, "Into the Great Unknown," was featured in Star Wars Tales 19, a comic book that hit shelves on May 14, 2004. Its significance lies in being the inaugural officially-licensed work to unite Han Solo and Indiana Jones, both iconic characters brought to life by Harrison Ford during the '70s and '80s. The concept of a story intertwining these two figures originated with Dark Horse Comics staff, who then commissioned Blackman to write it. Blackman incorporated nods to both film franchises, aiming to resonate with a broad audience.
In the aftermath of the Battle of Endor, Han Solo, the Human pilot, and Chewbacca, his Wookiee co-pilot, find themselves in a predicament. Piloting the YT-1300 light freighter Millennium Falcon, they encounter an Imperial fleet after departing the moon Hovan 99. To evade a pursuing Star Destroyer and accompanying TIE Fighters, Solo impulsively jumps the Millennium Falcon into hyperspace without calculating precise coordinates. The ship materializes in an unfamiliar system with several planets and moons, eventually landing on a blue world after detecting signs of life.
During their descent into the planet's atmosphere, the ship's rear repulsorlift malfunctions, causing the Millennium Falcon to crash-land in a forest that reminds Solo of Endor. While searching for civilization, Solo and Chewbacca are ambushed by a group of humans armed with spears, bows, and axes. Chewbacca defends them using his bowcaster and brute strength, causing some of the attackers to fall to their deaths from a cliff. However, Solo is struck by multiple arrows and begins to bleed to death. Realizing his fate, he asks Chewbacca to take him back to the Millennium Falcon, where he dies in the captain's chair.
One hundred twenty-six years later, three humans traverse the same forest: Dr. Jones, an archaeologist, his sidekick Shorty, and their guide, seeking a legendary creature rumored to inhabit the area. Chewbacca observes from a distance as they stumble upon the Millennium Falcon, enter the ship, and discover Solo's skeleton. The skeleton seems familiar to Jones, and he decides to abandon his search for the monster, leaving the discovery as part of the "Great Unknown."
In 1999, Dark Horse Comics launched Star Wars Tales, a monthly comic books series presenting various short Star Wars stories in each edition. Leland Chee, the guardian of the Holocron continuity database, categorized most Tales stories as S-canon, rendering them non-canon unless referenced outside of the Tales series. However, any overtly comical or intentionally absurd stories were definitively non-canon.
Given this latitude to explore apocryphal narratives, the Dark Horse team began brainstorming a story uniting Han Solo and Indiana Jones, both creations of George Lucas and portrayed by Harrison Ford. Solo was a Star Wars icon, while Jones hailed from the Indiana Jones franchise; both characters headlined their respective movie series in the '70s and '80s. Although Jones had a cameo in the computer game Star Wars: Yoda Stories, he and Solo had never been involved in a crossover together. Ultimately, Dark Horse enlisted W. Haden Blackman to craft a story featuring both characters.
During his tenure at Dark Horse in the early to mid-1990s, Karl Kesel conceived an Indiana Jones adventure that was ultimately rejected. In this concept, the titular archaeologist encounters a mysterious woman attempting to access a secret passage by translating an inscription carved into the rock. The inscription hints at events from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Indy helps open a door, revealing the Millennium Falcon with C-3PO aboard, who tells Jones that he reminded him to Solo. Learning about the similarities between his concept and "Into the Great Unknown" in 2018 through his guest appearance at the IndyCast, Kesel acknowledged discussing his pitch with representatives from both Dark Horse and Lucasfilm Ltd., leading him to wonder if someone recalled his earlier proposal.
While developing the story's plot, Blackman drew inspiration from anecdotes from the set of the 1983 film Star Wars: Episode VI Return of the Jedi. These stories recounted that Peter Mayhew, Chewbacca's actor, had to be accompanied by crew members wearing brightly colored vests in the Californian forests of the Pacific Northwest during filming of the Endor scenes to avoid being mistaken for Bigfoot and potentially shot. Building on this, Blackman devised a narrative where Solo and Chewbacca land on Earth in the Pacific Northwest, Solo perishes, and Chewbacca is mistaken for Bigfoot while wandering the forests in the ensuing years. Considering Wookiees' long lifespans, he decided to have Indiana Jones discover Solo's remains over a century later.
Blackman intentionally included explicit references to both the Star Wars and Indiana Jones films to appeal to fans of both franchises. For instance, Solo likens Earth to Endor, referencing the filming location of Return of the Jedi in the Pacific Northwest (Chewbacca is also referred to as "Sasquatch" by the local Native Americans). Solo delivers the line "I have a bad feeling about this place," a variation of a recurring line in the Star Wars films. Before his death, he tells Chewbacca, "I'm going first into the great unknown," echoing a line spoken by Jones's friend Wu Han in the 1984 film Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. The story's title, "Into the Great Unknown," is also derived from Wu Han's line and is presented on the comic's first page in the style of the Indiana Jones franchise logo. Indiana Jones is accompanied to the Pacific Northwest by Wan "Short Round" Li, his sidekick from Temple of Doom, though only the nicknames "Dr. Jones" and "Shorty" are used in the comic. Furthermore, given that both Solo and Jones were portrayed by Harrison Ford, Jones finds Solo's skeletal remains "familiar."
In 2008, Blackman described "Into the Great Unknown" as one of the most enjoyable Star Wars stories he had ever written. Following his writing, Sean Gordon Murphy penciled and inked the comic, Steve Dutro lettered it, Dan Jackson colored it, and it was included as a ten-page story in the nineteenth issue of Tales, which was published on May 14, 2004. A preview of "Into the Great Unknown" was released on IndianaJones.com ten days before its release. Tales 19 was later compiled in the 2005 trade paperback Star Wars Tales Volume 5, and "Into the Great Unknown" was republished in the comic Star Wars Fan Club Special 2008 in 2008.
While Blackman envisioned "Into the Great Unknown" as taking place in Earth's Pacific Northwest, the planet is never explicitly identified as Earth. However, its star system is referred to as being "no longer far away," a reference to the Star Wars saga taking place "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" Similarly, Indiana Jones and Short Round are never explicitly named, only being addressed as "Dr. Jones" and "Shorty," respectively. Blackman confirmed in an interview with Vanity Fair's Frank DiGiacomo that the character was indeed Indiana Jones, and DiGiacomo has suggested that the planet is Earth, "Shorty" is Short Round, and the local humans are Native Americans.
In the story, as Solo is dying from arrow wounds inflicted by the Native Americans, he remarks to Chewbacca that he always believed Chewbacca would be the first to die while saving him or his children. This alludes to Chewbacca's heroic, yet controversial, death while saving Anakin Solo in R. A. Salvatore's 1999 novel The New Jedi Order: Vector Prime.
"Into the Great Unknown" does not specify a precise timeline, although Solo mentions his children, the first two of whom were born in 9 ABY. Indiana Jones' reference to Atlantis suggests the story occurs during or after 1939. Blackman later clarified that the story lacks a definitive date due to its non-canonical status. However, he places the story seven or eight years after Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, setting it around 1942 or 1943, which would place the Falcon's crash on Earth around 1816 or 1817.
Despite the story's non-canon status, the moon Hovan 99 and its system were later incorporated into canon in The Essential Atlas Online Companion, placing them in the Senex sector. Earth and the "Earth system" were mentioned in the 2011 Disney Theme Park ride Star Tours: The Adventures Continue and its promotional materials. Solo and Jones have also appeared in the non-canon video games LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga, LEGO Indiana Jones: The Original Adventures, Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings, and LEGO Star Wars III: The Clone Wars.