She, unlike some of her previous associates, has pages.
Emilia Clarke’s post-Game of Thrones genre tour has taken her everywhere from the galaxy far, far away to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but it turns out her heart still belongs to Star Wars. Her Solo: A Star Wars Story character Qi’ra — former flame of Han Solo, agent of Darth Maul’s criminal syndicate the Crimson Dawn and, thanks to the recent comics, now a major criminal power in her own right — was a highlight of the film. But since its release, Qi’ra’s past and future have been largely left untold, and it turns out, Clarke herself may want to tell it more than anyone else.
“[Qi’ra’s] the one that has the most unfinished business,” Clarke told the Hollywood Reporter in an interview about her new comic series, M.O.M.: Mother of Madness. “I really had pages about what her life was and what it would be afterwards. But I’m afraid I’ve heard nothing of [Disney+] being the case, so maybe I’ll just write it and send it to them. I’ll be like, ‘Hey guys, I’ve got a few ideas.’”
Star Wars, especially in its post-acquisition incarnation, has long had a history struggling to balance its desire to tell new stories and chart new eras of its vast universe with its ever-encroaching insularity — cameo after cameo after surprise return making that same world feel ever smaller. But there’s a difference between something like The Bad Batch working its way through a checklist of cameo characters week after week or what Lucasfilm has had planned with the return of Boba Fett in The Mandalorian, and then something like revisiting a character like Qi’ra.
She’s a character that has so much potential to explore a side of Star Wars — the criminal underworld — that’s currently a hot topic as a setting outside of her singular cinematic experience. Especially so, considering Clarke makes it seem like she’s done the groundwork to explore that character herself. Let her do something with those notes!