What’s the most awesome aspect of the classic Star Wars trilogy? For some, the obvious answer is everything about lightsabers—but the starfighters from the first three films are just as incredible. In fact, one of Star Wars’ key innovations was introducing agile space dogfights to cinema. Before Star Wars, space battles were slower, showing bigger ships fighting like naval battleships. But George Lucas’ creativity and the early team’s technical magic essentially created how we visualize fictional space combat today.
It’s easy to think that in the 1990s—when Star Wars was kept alive by video games, comics, and novels—the franchise was just paying homage to its 1970s and ’80s origins. But the reality was more complex. Before The Phantom Menace and the minor reimagining of the Force, the Expanded Universe (later renamed “Legends”)—through landmark works like Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire—pushed Star Wars further into sci-fi subgenres instead of sticking to space fantasy. One standout series, much like Rogue One later would, blended sci-fi espionage with Top Gun-style action: that series is Rogue Squadron.
By February 1996, die-hard Star Wars fans around the world had likely read Michael A. Stackpole’s X-Wing #1 Rogue Squadron. This book turned the video game thrill of piloting an X-Wing into a convincing sci-fi narrative.
Set two years post-Battle of Endor, Rogue Squadron centers on Wedge Antilles as he rebuilds the elite squadron Luke Skywalker first formed after destroying the original Death Star. Modern, sarcastic Star Wars fans might joke that Rogue Squadron is the ultimate “Glup Shitto” gathering—whether you love that Wedge is the most recognizable original trilogy character here is up to you. But back in 1996, fans couldn’t get enough.
The opening pages of Rogue Squadron nailed the starfighter mechanics fans knew from flight sims like Star Wars: X-Wing and Rebel Assault. While the X-Wing was designed in the 1970s by an artist, and John Dykstra and ILM brought it to life on screen, the Expanded Universe made its inner workings understandable. Stackpole’s focus on the technical details of Star Wars canon is remarkable, especially since he didn’t have the large team of Star Wars writers that exist today. Similar to Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy, it feels like Star Wars shares more with Star Trek here—at least when it comes to sci-fi explanations for its technology.
But Rogue Squadron became a fan favorite because it’s half Top Gun in space and half the start of a layered spy tale. Stackpole hints at the end of the book that one squad member isn’t loyal to the Rebels—they’re aligned with the Empire instead. This twist isn’t random; from the start, there’s widespread distrust in the Alliance (which sometimes goes by the New Republic, but not always, since things are still fresh). Even Admiral Ackbar is concerned about spies and saboteurs, and though the war is over, the capital planet Coruscant hasn’t been retaken yet. (Again, this is pre-Phantom Menace, so Coruscant only exists in books and comics.) Interestingly, while the novel was new, Dark Horse Comics had been releasing X-Wing: Rogue Squadron comics since July 1995, following Wedge and a different crew in the months right after Endor. In February 1996, the comic arc “The Phantom Affair” hit newsstands alongside the first Rogue Squadron novel. This story had Wedge and his team facing conspiracy theorists who claimed the Battle of Endor never occurred. (It bears repeating: This was 1996—how ahead of its time!)
Did fans get confused that the Rogue Squadron comics and first novel were set in slightly different timeframes with different squad members? Sort of. Stackpole’s most iconic addition to Rogue Squadron was Corran Horn, a former Corellian Security Force detective (ex-cop) who’s now an Alliance starpilot. But in the comics, Corran hasn’t joined the squad yet, and apart from Wedge and Tycho Celchu (a character later retconned as an A-Wing pilot in Return of the Jedi), the comic and novel pilots are from different eras.
But this complexity was a strength, not a flaw, of the Rogue Squadron craze. The first novel and ongoing comics created a small, dedicated sub-fandom within the Star Wars Expanded Universe community. The Rogue Squadron book series grew to 10 novels, including some by the late Aaron Allston. The comic series ran until November 1998, totaling 35 issues.
Has modern Star Wars ever truly leveraged this rich, mostly untapped canon? The short answer is no. Patty Jenkins was set to direct a Rogue Squadron movie in 2020, and as recently as February 2026, screenwriter Matthew Robinson But, the film is planned to take place in the sequel era, not right after the original trilogy. So if Wedge Antilles or Corran Horn appear in that possible movie, they’ll be older, respected figures.
Lucasfilm might never recapture the magic of the Rogue Squadron era. But that’s fine—all the books and comics are available for new fans to find. Once you dive in, you’ll wonder how you ever missed them. Star Wars is known for thrilling space battles and speedy starfighters, but that potential was perhaps never realized better than in the pages of Rogue Squadron.