Star Wars' seventh episode goes Shakespeare in The Force Doth Awaken excerpt

The newest installment in Ian Doescher’s William Shakespeare’s Star Wars series, The Force Doth Awaken, will allow readers to experience Episode VII as if the Bard wrote it.

Doescher is evidently catching up to the Star Wars film series, which in this case means that only a few years after moviegoers were introduced to Daisy Ridley’s Rey, they’ll have the opportunity to imagine her delivering Force-themed monologues in iambic pentameter. Indeed, EW has obtained an exclusive excerpt of the upcoming book, courtesy of Doescher, and it teases just that. Lines such as “E’en with th’Resistance shall my path be join’d, Knit closely unto them as skin to bone?” indicate a delectable new reading of Rey, and hint at what else the book has in store. (Another tidbit: Chewbacca speaks!)

Check out the excerpt below, along with an exclusive first-look image of The Force Doth Awaken. The book will be published Oct. 3.

Excerpt from ‘The Force Doth Awaken: William Shakespeare’s Star Wars,’ by Ian Doescher

REY

I can do this, and shall — I will not fail.
Controls engag’d, we fly into the air
O’er sandy dunes we soar above
Jakku. Until this moment life hath
simple been: Led only by mine
instinct to survive, Depending on no
person but myself.
Belike Fate hath for me some other plan —
E’en with th’Resistance shall my path be
join’d, Knit closely unto them as skin to
bone?
I take delight, such future to envision,
Ne’er hath my days such keen adventure known.
Tut, tut, it shall not be, nor may not, nay —
Out there, beyond the stars, my destiny
Shall not be found, for here I’m bound to
wait. Keen is my heart to see my family,
Yet when shall they return? Until that day,
Whene’er some undertaking doth arise
As has, today, come knocking on my
door, Lo, though the venture calls unto
my heart — Knocks deep within my
soul to answer it — E’en then, I know
it may not, shall not,
Restricted is my life unto Jakku,
So may I see my family again
Once they have made their certain
homecoming. Meanwhile, I shall this
bulky ship direct
If in the doing I may keep us safe.
Link’d are this droid and this man
unto me —
Deliv’rance or disaster, come apace!