While we regularly look at rumours regarding film and TV projects, we generally don’t hypothesise about books, but with From A Certain Point Of View: The Empire Strikes Back coming our way with a Martha Wells story focusing on the Ugnaught clans of Bespin it felt like too good a link to pass up. Inverse take a look at the rumour, from Kuiil‘s own words of working from indentured servitude to freeing his clan and making a new life for himself to Wells own beginnings in fan fiction.
The Mandalorian happens six years after Return of the Jedi, which makes it about seven years after The Empire Strikes Back. This connection has led to the fan theory that Kuill was on Cloud City during the events of The Empire Strikes Back and helped to freeze Han in carbonite. (Some of Kuill’s dialogue seems to support this idea, too. You can read the full fan theory here.)
Now, one of the new stories in From a Certain Point of View will explore what the Ugnaught clans were doing during Han, Leia and Chewie’s visit to Cloud City. Here’s the official synopsis:
“Martha Wells reveals the world of the Ugnaught clans who dwell in the depths of Cloud City.”
Wells is the author of the popular Murderbot series book series and got her start writing Godzilla fanfic. This doesn’t prove she will make an explicit link between Kuill and the events on Cloud City, but because she began her career writing fanfic, you could argue that she thinks like a fan, and this has her own theories about what Ugnaughts were up to on Cloud City.
There’s also the delicious prospect of Wells take linking in with the original Marvel run which saw Lando and Lobot return to Bespin and encounter King Ozz, the leader of the Ugnaughts. Could Kuiil be the one who pulled the lever? We’ll find out when the book is released on 2nd October 2020.
