The Road to Episode Infinity: Who is Doctor Aphra?

How did an up-and-coming expanded universe character become the lead for Marvel’s second most important Star Wars comic series? There’s something magical about Doctor Aphra that fans love. She is half Indiana Jones and half Mara Jade, and like Jade she has a dark streak to her. Aphra is a freelancer: not quite hero, not quite villain. She has become so popular with fans that she recently won a fan vote to become an actual Star Wars Hasbro action figure.

Aphra was introduced into the Disney canon in 2015. She was created by Kieron Gillen and Salva Larroca for the Marvel comic series “Darth Vader”. When “Darth Vader” finished its 25-issue run last year, Vader was removed from the series and it was rebooted as “Doctor Aphra”.

Kieron Gillen’s comic lines are important because both the “Darth Vader” series and the “Doctor Aphra” series have crossed over with the main Marvel “Star Wars” series. The first crossover was “Vader Down” in November of 2015 and the second was “The Screaming Citadel” in June of 2017. Aphra was heavily featured in both of these tent-pole crossover events. Kieron Gillen also wrote Doctor Aphra into the collection “From A Certain Point of View” which was another sign that Aphra is quickly becoming a popular character.

Aphra has Asian features (not that there is an Asia in the Star Wars galaxy) and it was revealed recently in the comics that Aphra is gay. Though we haven’t had any confirmed LGBT characters in the films yet, there are plenty in the new Expanded Universe, including Sana Starros and Sinjir Rath Velus. It is no secret that female characters have also quickly been taking over the Star Wars universe and while reading “The Screaming Citadel”, I can’t help but notice that Luke and Han have sort of taken back seat to the strong female characters.

One has to wonder how far Aphra could rise in the Expanded Universe or if she could ever, one day, appear in one of the films. We don’t really have any examples of Expanded Universe characters breaking into the films, but it has been recently announced that Tag Greenley and Bink Outauna will be appearing in "Solo: A Star Wars Story". Tag & Bink appeared in a non-canon line of comic books called “Tag & Bink are Dead”.

Really, anything could happen in a world where Disney is hammering out a Star Wars film every year. “Aphra: A Star Wars Story” has a pretty good ring to it.