While Doctor Chelli Lona Aphra came from humble comic beginnings, she’s become a powerhouse in her own right, with two 40-issue series under her belt and legions of fans in her chaotic, complicated, and compelling wake. After a year and a half absence, besides some smaller appearances, on June 18 Doctor Aphra is heading back to a local comic shop near you with her third on-going series: Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent! With a new series comes a new creative team, so bringing Aphra’s latest misadventures to life are Gabriel Guzman on art and Cherish Chen as writer, new to the Star Wars galaxy! In our latest interview, Cherish Chen joins the Manor to talk about Aphra’s return in the New Republic era, teases what we can expect, what the character means to her, and so much more! Head below to check it out now!
While Aphra’s far too brief cameo in The Battle of Jakku maxiseries and double-story duty in the Marvel 10-year celebration one-shot A New Legacy were a delight, they left me eager to see when she’d return for her own series, per the promise at the end of Doctor Aphra #40 (2020). This Chelli Aphra fan went a little crazy looking for hints and hopes regarding an announcement, trying to understand what the Aphra Preview Cover by Annie Wu for Star Wars #1 (2025) meant for the future of the character, but thankfully myself and many other fans didn’t have to wait too long, as March brought us the reveal of Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent, set to hit the shelves of comic shops everywhere in the very fitting Pride Month of June! As mentioned before, Cherish Chen takes the reins of the new series, alongside artist Gabriel Guzman, and in the initial announcement and the series’ first previews, she’s revealed details like the series begins with Chelli’s electro-tattoos not working, there’s a mystery afoot, and we’ll go to plenty of new and familiar places. In anticipation of Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent, I reached out to Cherish in hopes to learn more about her approach to the character, what her history in film and marketing meant for her writing, and carrying on the character’s legacy, among other topics. She was gracious enough to answer our variety of questions, which I developed with fellow Manor writer and Aphra fan Chris, and her answers only served to bring even more excitement for her work and the upcoming series. Without further ado, here’s the interview!
Mynock Manor: Let’s begin with an introduction: tell our readers about yourself, what else you’re working on, and where they can find you online!
Where did your journey with Star Wars begin and what’s it like writing for the franchise now?
Cherish Chen: Hey everyone! I’m a writer and producer, working in comics and film. Beyond Aphra, I don’t have any projects that are quite ready to announce yet, but you can find me on instagram at @cherishthechen where I will update folks as things come up!
So being an only child raised by a single immigrant mom, I didn’t have a lot of outside influence when it came to watching STAR WARS as a kid; I knew all the big iconic moments growing up but I don’t think I fully watched and immersed myself in it until my late teens. When I finally did watch the movies, I just Got it. It’s kind of impossible not to see both how universal and wildly unique the films were when they came out. Random things that stand out — I love how quirky the stormtroopers are in the original trilogy, the world-building, and how tragic Darth Vader is as a character. Being on the writing side of things now, it’s wild being super aware of Star Wars’ impact and then being given so much leeway in carving out a piece of that galaxy in Doctor Aphra.
With your background in film marketing, co-creating a platform like The RocketJump Film School to provide filmmaking knowledge to the masses, and writing/producing films, how have these experiences aided writing comics, first with Radiant Red over at Image and now Chaos Agent?
It’s cheesy to say but focusing on storytelling is the thread that binds all of these experiences together. Film marketing gets a bad rap but it boils down to storytelling. Making the RocketJump Film School was borne out of a love and desire to share storytelling techniques and knowledge. All of that has come together in my comics writing experience, both in RR and Chaos Agent. Comics are simply a different medium and practicing what kind of storytelling works best for this format has been its own unique puzzle.
How were you introduced to Chelli Lona Aphra and what’s kept you coming back to follow her adventures? And then to write her next one?
During Kieron Gillen’s run, I heard that Star Wars had introduced a new character in the comics that was a sort of “evil Indiana Jones” and the fact that she was a chaotic, queer, Asian woman piqued my interest even more. Turns out she’s not exactly evil which made her even more fun. I read her original run and then Sarah Kuhn’s audio drama and just thought she was a totally fresh injection of energy into the Star Wars world. Then when I got the invitation to write on this series, it was a flood of ideas for adventures for her that we bounced around with the Marvel and Lucasfilm teams. As you can imagine, Aphra is a genuinely fun character to write for; she’s unpredictable, smart, and usually walking her own line in the world. It’s an incredible opportunity I don’t take lightly!
What’s your one sentence pitch for fans with your Aphra series?
In an era of epic change and supposed “peace”, Doctor Aphra is confronted with more challenging circumstances than ever, forced to rely on the most bare bones of resources, and joins a covert band of New Republic government agents dedicated to recovering the most mysterious artifacts in the galaxy.
It’s been 10 years since Aphra’s first introduction in Darth Vader #3 (2015) and a bevy of talent has brought her misadventures to life, from Kieron Gillen & Si Spurrier to Alyssa Wong. What’s it like stepping into fan expectations, carrying Aphra’s story forward, and what do you hope fans will connect with in your iteration?
It’s impossible not to think about fan expectations when you step into something like this but for me, I tried to focus on an angle that would excite our creative team. We thought about what all the creators before us did really well and how we could expand on that, rather than replicate territory that Aphra has already traversed. A big difference is also the time period we’re working in — post-Jakku and post-Vader puts Aphra in a very different context than we’ve ever seen her before so that dictated a lot of this run and what we have in store for her
In a lot of ways, Satomi Shen of Radiant Red and Doctor Aphra have a lot in common – they’re not exactly heroes, but it’s hard to call them a villain. They both are able to leverage their incredible skills to their own ends. They both find themselves working with heroes, whether or not they want to. What draws you to writing these types of characters? How do you shape protagonists that aren’t purely evil or purely good?
Morally complex characters are simply more interesting to me and I also think more of your typical “heroes” and “villains” fall into these categories than we think. We’ve always seen lots of our favorite protagonists dabble or flirt with hard choices in either direction; at the end of the day, I try to tackle each character from their individual point of view. Why they are the way they are, what experiences led them to act the way they do, etc. I would apply these questions to any character.
That being said, Satomi and Aphra both lean toward what we would immediately label as “bad” and adding shades to that label is half the fun!
When you took Satomi’s story in Radiant Red, you were stepping into this wider world but making it your own. How does writing for the MassiveVerse compare with writing for Star Wars? How do you take such a sprawling property and still make it your own?
While there were similarities between the Massive-Verse and Star Wars being previously established worlds I was joining, the scale is obviously quite different. When I wrote Radiant Red, I could talk through all the nitty gritty with my pal Kyle Higgins, who was the primary vision holder for all things in that world. And it was pretty early in the shaping of Satomi and her story. Aphra is a much more established character in a WAY more established world. I leaned heavily on Mark [Paniccia] and Michael [Basso], my editors at Marvel, and the incredible Lucasfilm team, to collaborate with on some of the more specific parts of Star Wars so the books felt true and connected.
We’ll see if I successfully made it my own enough. As I’ve mentioned before, our goal was to connect Aphra to the larger Star Wars galaxy, both by partnering her with some of the most familiar faces again and also by expanding the galaxy with new characters and locations we haven’t visited in a while. I hope those contributions make an impression.
Chelli’s LGBTQIA+ representation has been Star Wars’ most visible, and while publishing initiatives like The High Republic have brought more, the Aphra (2020) series expanded the quality to a whole other level. How has honoring such a legacy impacted your process with the new series?
Chelli being queer is an indelible part of her identity. When it comes to the process, I land somewhere between never taking that for granted but also seeing it as an inherent part of her voice and how she interacts with the people she encounters. One of my favorite things about Aphra is that she always read as having an easy confidence to her. She can be showy and obnoxious but it’s never about projecting something she’s not. To me, that is rooted in how comfortable she is in her skin and her being queer is a natural and important component of that. It’s aspirational and kind of moving, and it felt so satisfying to fold that into writing her.
Beyond Aphra’s history of being such a well-rounded LGBTQIA+ character, she’s still pushing boundaries by being not only Star Wars’ sole original comic character with their own on-going comic, but also the only woman and person-of-color as well to hold such an honor. What does it mean to you to keep pushing the franchise’s AAPI representation?
Similar answer as above. I remember growing up and loving all kinds of movies, even when the protagonists looked or sounded nothing like me. But I felt a particular affinity for Studio Ghibli movies because even when characters weren’t explicitly Asian, some of them seemed enough like me to feel seen. It was hard to deny a connection there.
I feel that way about Aphra. Her being Asian isn’t something that warrants different treatment within the Star Wars galaxy, which is refreshing, but it certainly makes a powerful impression on me as part of the AAPI community. And that same quality of being comfortable in her skin has its own aspirational context when it comes to being Asian American. I think many Asian Americans wrestle with that feeling as we grow up, in similar but different contexts than the LGBTQIA+ community, and so Aphra speaking to that is really interesting and special.
By the end of the 2016 series, Aphra took the steps to be less selfish, and by the end of the 2020 series, she found the desire to be with those she cared about. What type of journey do you intend to take her on and how are you keeping what’s come before in mind? And what do you feel are important aspects to have in a story with her particular brand of chaos?
In her previous runs, I got the impression that Aphra had successfully carved out little nooks for herself in which she could comfortably exist on her terms. It wasn’t without hardships but she landed in places where she defined how she wanted to live her life by the end. And that was in the era of the Empire, a tumultuous time for anyone to be living under.
A lot has changed in the galaxy in the years since, and we wanted that change to be felt in these stories. I think most folks would expect that things would get easier for Chelli in a time of perceived peace with the New Republic building power and Vader gone. I thought the opposite, that perhaps Aphra would find a much harder time living life as usual. That she’d surprisingly struggle more in peace than in chaos. Instead of her bouncing around the galaxy with the ease she demonstrated in earlier runs, things have gone wrong for Aphra time and again as someone who played both sides pretty regularly in the years prior.
Now she’s more constricted than ever, she’s never really endeared herself to folks in the NR, and now she has to rebuild an entirely new status for herself. What kind of person is Chelli when she can’t excuse her behavior as simply “surviving”?
Luke Skywalker and Chelli Aphra have several memorable and often hilarious yet complex interactions over the years in the comics, be it The Screaming Citadel or previous Aphra series, was it daunting to add to their dynamic and write Luke in this era? And how about Han Solo, joining her adventures in issue #3?
I wouldn’t say “daunting” but it was a bit of a gut check to be like, “Hey you’re writing canon Luke Skywalker and Han Solo, isn’t that kind of wild?” That’s never gonna get old when you’re given the green light to contribute to massively iconic characters. That being said, breaking down what makes these characters such dynamic pairings with Aphra was enormously fun.
What can you say for fans eager to see if their favorites, like Magna Tolvan, Sana Starros, or Just Lucky, will find their way back into Aphra’s life?
I know this is a big one for a lot of fans but unfortunately, I have to remain pretty vague on this one!
Can you tell us anything about the Dagger Agency, revealed in the solicitation for issue #3, that puts Han and Aphra together?
You learn a lot about them in Issue #1 so I’ll save anything I’d say for readers 🙂
What’s the process been like with the brain trusts at Lucasfilm while operating in this less explored era of canon? And for when you create an artifact (which you’ve said the one Luke and Chelli chase after in the opening issues is combination of something old and new), or venturing to new or familiar planets/locations?
Extremely open and collaborative. I didn’t know what to expect since this was my first time writing in one of the biggest IPs but I’ve been given a lot of creative room to play with Lucasfilm. That’s been such a joy. And the team there is so mindblowingly knowledgeable and available as a guiding force. They’ve been very Jedi-like to me, haha! I’ve learned so much from them.
How’s the collaborative process with Gabriel Guzman for Chaos Agent been? Anything you can tease which fans should be looking forward to with his work?
Gabriel is an incredible talent. When you get the chance to work with truly S-tier sequential artists, man, it’s my favorite part about working in comics. I’ve thrown him a ton of environments, some brand new, some really epic, a handful of new characters, and just a ton of intricate stuff and Gabriel has just knocked it out of the park time and again. His portrayals of Luke are SO good and he drew a new character in Issue #3 (hint: it’s the villain) that I am obsessed with!!
Taking on main cover duties for the series has been Ejikure so far, but we’re also seeing variant covers from the likes of Annie Wu, Marguerite Sauvage, Karen S. Darboe, and more. What’s been like having such talent bringing unique, vibrant, and fun covers to the series? Are there any ones we haven’t seen yet you’re excited for fans to experience?
When it comes to the covers, I’m experiencing things like most of the audience and seeing them as they get released! It’s a thrill seeing all the different iterations by a handful of incredible artists. I’m enjoying the ride like the readers 😉
A giant thank you to Cherish Chen for joining the Manor for the interview! Doctor Aphra: Chaos Agent launches June 18 and we’ll update this post with a link to our review once it’s live!
Ryan is Mynock Manor’s Head Butler. You can follow him and the website on Bluesky and Instagram @mynockmanor.
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