For nearly fifty years, Star Wars has been a saga of destiny, conflict, and adventure — but rarely of intimacy. That might be about to change.
Ashley Poston’s upcoming novel “Star Wars: Eyes Like Stars”, revealed at NYCC’s Lucasfilm Publishing panel (via StarWars.com), introduces a romance-driven story set about a year and a half before Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015). The book follows two new characters caught between personal loss and galactic chaos as the First Order rises.
On paper, it’s a young adult romance, but thematically, it could be one of the franchise’s most significant turns in years.
Star Wars has often skirted around complex relationships, particularly LGBTQ+ ones. Its most visible attempt — the split-second kiss between two women in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (2019) — was easy to miss and impossible to forget for the wrong reasons. There was, of course, last year's Disney+ series, The Acolyte (2024), which featured numerous lesbian couples, but it wasn't the main focus of the show.
The YA market has long championed inclusivity and self-discovery, and giving that lens to Star Wars might allow it to explore what love looks like in a universe that spans countless species and identities. Even if the novel’s central couple appears heterosexual (per the promotional cover art), its focus on empathy and healing feels like progress for a franchise that’s struggled to keep pace with its audience.
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Recent Star Wars projects like Andor (2022) and Rogue One (2016) have leaned on tension and sacrifice, often at the cost of true human connection. A romance such as “Eyes Like Stars” doesn’t just diversify genre — it softens tone. It reminds us that survival and rebellion aren’t the only stories worth telling in this galaxy.
For Lucasfilm, that shift could signal something deeper. After years of uneven reception to Disney+ shows and ambitious but polarizing films, this simple love story may be a quiet reintroduction to what Star Wars has always been about at its best — people finding each other in impossible circumstances.
Will you be reading the new Star Wars romance novel? Let us know in the comments!
