Into the Great Unknown " Into the Great Unknown " is a ten - page non - canon comic story that was written by W . Haden Blackman . Within its pages , Han Solo and Chewbacca pilot their starship , the " Millennium Falcon " , blindly into hyperspace and end up crashing into the planet Earth ' s . Solo is attacked and killed by a group of , and , 126 years later , his skeleton is discovered by the archaeologist Indiana Jones , who is searching the area for the fabled ( in fact Chewbacca ) . " Into the Great Unknown " was included in the comic book " Star Wars Tales 19 " , which was released on May 14 , 2004 . The story is notable for being the first officially - licensed work to include both Han Solo and Indiana Jones , two characters portrayed on film by Harrison Ford in the 1970s and 1980s . The idea to write a story featuring the two was floated by staff at Dark Horse Comics , who then asked Blackman to pen it . While writing , he inserted references to both film franchises into the story , hoping to appeal to a wide range of fans . Plot summary . Sometime after the Battle of Endor , Han Solo and Chewbacca , respectively the Human pilot and Wookiee co - pilot of the YT - 1300 light freighter " Millennium Falcon " , run afoul of an Imperial fleet after leaving the moon Hovan 99 . As they evade a Star Destroyer and several TIE Fighters , Solo takes the " Millennium Falcon " blindly into hyperspace rather than taking the time to calculate jump coordinates . The ship emerges in an unfamiliar system that contains several planets and moons , and the pair lands on a blue world after detecting life on it . The ship ' s rear repulsorlift controls give out on their way into the planet ' s atmosphere , causing the " Millennium Falcon " to crash into a forest that reminds Solo of the moon of Endor . As they search for a settlement , Solo and Chewbacca are attacked by a group of Humans who wield spears , bow s , and axe s . Chewbacca fights them off with his bowcaster and his own strength , knocking some of them off a cliff to their demises , but Solo is struck by several arrows and begins to slowly bleed to death . Anticipating that he will not survive , he asks his co - pilot to return him to the " Millennium Falcon " , where he passes away in the captain ' s chair . 126 years later , three Humans make their way through the same forest — an archaeologist named Dr . Jones , his sidekick Shorty , and their guide , in search of a legendary monster that has been sighted in the area . Chewbacca watches from afar as they come across the " Millennium Falcon " , board the ship , and discover Solo ' s skeleton . The skeleton feels familiar to Jones , and , rather than continue his search for the monster , he decides to leave it as part of the " Great Unknown " . Main characters . Han Solo . After fleeing blindly into hyperspace from an attacking Imperial fleet , Han Solo and his co - pilot Chewbacca crash their starship , the " Millennium Falcon " , into the forests of an unfamiliar planet . After leaving the downed vessel to search for a settlement , they are attacked by a group of primitive Humans , who fire several arrows at Solo and pierce his skin . He realizes that he is going to die , and asks Chewbacca to bring him back into the " Falcon " so that he may spend his final moments there . Chewbacca . Chewbacca the Wookiee is flying with Solo as the " Millennium Falcon " lands on the unfamiliar planet , and he kills all of the attacking Humans with his bowcaster and his brute strength , although he is too late to save Solo from dying . After Solo passes away , Chewbacca begins roaming the nearby forest and is referred to as " Sasquatch " by the natives . He is still present 126 years later , watching over the " Millennium Falcon " . Dr . Jones . 126 years after Solo ' s death , Dr . Jones and his partner Shorty are drawn by reported sightings of a monster to the forest where the " Millennium Falcon " lies . They are guided by a Human who shows them the starship , and after they board it , Jones discovers Solo ' s skeleton and finds something about it familiar . He decides to leave it , and the supposed monster , be . Shorty . Shorty accompanies Indiana Jones on his expedition to the forest , and boards the " Millennium Falcon " with him . When Jones remarks that Solo ' s skeleton seems familiar , Shorty asks if they should continue looking for the supposed monster . Conception . In 1999 , Dark Horse Comics began publishing " Star Wars Tales " , a monthly series of comic books that featured several short " Star Wars " stories in each issue . Leland Chee , the keeper of the Holocron continuity database , declared that most " Tales " stories were S - canon , which rendered them non - canon unless referenced in a source other than " Tales " . Any completely outrageous or intentionally comic stories would be definitively non - canon , however . With the freedom to tell apocryphal stories , staff at Dark Horse began tossing around the idea of telling a story that involved both Han Solo and Indiana Jones , both of whom were characters created by George Lucas and portrayed by Harrison Ford . Solo was a " Star Wars " character while Jones was not ; the two had respectively been main characters in the " Star Wars " and " " movie franchises in the 1970s and 1980s . Although Jones had previously made a cameo in the computer game " " , he and Solo had never been involved in a together . Eventually , Dark Horse contracted author W . Haden Blackman to write a story featuring both characters . Production . While conceiving the story ' s plot , Blackman recalled stories from the set of the 1983 film . The stories claimed that Peter Mayhew , the actor who played Chewbacca , was required to be accompanied by crewmembers who wore brightly - colored vests while in the forests of the , filming scenes set on Endor , so as not to be mistaken for and shot . Working from there , Blackman crafted a story that involved Solo and Chewbacca landing on Earth in the Pacific Northwest , Solo dying , and Chewbacca being mistaken for Bigfoot while roaming the forests in the proceeding years . Taking the long life spans of Wookiees into account , he decided to have Indiana Jones discover Solo ' s remains over 100 years later . Blackman included several explicit references to both the " Star Wars " and " Indiana Jones " films in the story in an effort to appeal to fans of both franchises — for example , Solo compares Earth to Endor , referencing the fact that " Return of the Jedi " Endor scenes were filmed in the Pacific Northwest ( Chewbacca is also called " Sasquatch " in the comic by the local ) . Solo utters the line " I have a bad feeling about this place , " a variation on a line spoken in every " Star Wars " film , and , just before dying , tells Chewbacca " I ' m going first into the great unknown , " echoing a line spoken by Jones ' s friend in the film " " . The story ' s title , " Into the Great Unknown " , also comes from Wu Han ' s line , and is written on the first page of the comic in the style of the " Indiana Jones " franchise logo . Indiana Jones is accompanied to the Pacific Northwest by Short Round , his sidekick from " Temple of Doom " , although only the nicknames " Dr . Jones " and " Shorty " are used in the comic . Additionally , as both Solo and Jones were played by Harrison Ford , Jones calls Solo ' s skeletal remains " familiar . " In 2008 , Blackman called " Into the Great Unknown " one of the most fun " Star Wars " stories that he had ever written . After he penned it , the comic was penciled and inked by Sean Gordon Murphy , lettered by Steve Dutro , colored by Dan Jackson , and included as a ten - page story in the nineteenth issue of " Tales " , which was published on May 14 , 2004 . Ten days prior to its release , " Into the Great Unknown " was previewed on Indianajones . com . " Tales 19 " was later collected in the 2005 trade paperback " Star Wars Tales Volume 5 " , and 2008 saw " Into the Great Unknown " re - published in the comic " Star Wars Fan Club Special 2008 " . Continuity . Although Blackman conceived of " Into the Great Unknown " as taking place in Earth ' s Pacific Northwest , the planet in the story is never identified as Earth . Its star system , however , is mentioned as being " no longer far away , " a play on the events of " Star Wars " taking place " A long time ago in a galaxy far , far away … " Similarly , Indiana Jones and Short Round are never explicitly identified , only being referred to as " Dr . Jones " and " Shorty , " respectively . Blackman confirmed in an interview with " " Frank DiGiacomo that the character was indeed Indiana Jones , and DiGiacomo has posited that the planet is in fact Earth , " Shorty " Short Round , and the local Humans Native Americans . In the story , when Solo is dying after being riddled with arrows by the Native Americans , he says to Chewbacca that he always though that it was Chewbacca the one who was going to be die while saving him or his children , referencing Chewbacca ' s heroic albeit controversial death while saving Anakin Solo in R . A . Salvatore ' s novel " " . " Into the Great Unknown " does not indicate when its story takes place , although Solo does mention his children , the first two of whom were born in 9 ABY ; while Indiana Jones ' mention of Atlantis would indicate that the story takes place during or after 1939 . Blackman eventually clarified that the story doesn ' t have any exact date because it wasn ' t canonical , though he sets the story seven or eight years after " Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom " , setting the story around 1942 or 1943 , which in turn would set the date in which Han and Chewie crashed the " Falcon " at the Earth around 1816 or 1817 . Although the story is non - canon , the moon Hovan 99 and its system were later canonized in " " , which placed them in the Senex sector . Earth and the " Earth system " were mentioned in the 2011 Disney Theme Park ride " " and its promotional materials , and Solo and Jones both appeared in the 2011 non - canon video game " " . Reception . Due to its merging of the " Star Wars " and " Indiana Jones " franchises , " Into the Great Unknown " has received significant attention on several websites . Frank DiaGacomo of " Vanity Fair " wrote an article on the story in the website ' s " Culture " section , and contacted W . Haden Blackman to find out more about the story ' s development . Comicgasm . com also spotlighted the comic in 2009 , and Cyriaque Lamar of the wrote an article on the comic in May 2011 that highlighted what he saw as the depressing nature of its story . Although " Into the Great Unknown " is the first officially - licensed work to include both Solo and Jones , two creations of George Lucas , Blackman is unsure whether Lucas is aware of the story ' s existence .