In the decades before Disney purchased Lucasfilm, Star Wars fans who craved more adventures set in a galaxy far, far away beyond the movies turned to the Expanded Universe, which encompassed books, comic books, video games and more. Following the Disney purchase, most of those stories were deemed non-canon and put under the Legends banner. However, various characters from the EU days have since been incorporated into official Star Wars canon, like Grand Admiral Thrawn. That makes me all the more confused why Mara Jade, another popular EU character keeps being rejected by the Lucasfilm brass.
Besides Thrawn, Mara Jade is arguably the most well-known character to come from Star Wars’ EU. She was also introduced in the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire as a foe to Luke Skywalker, but the two of them went on to fall in love in later works, marry and have a son together. While one would think that Mara would be ripe for adapting to fit into the official canon, according to Star Wars: Bloodline author Claudia Gray, she’s had this nixed on several occasions by the powers-that-be at Lucasfilm. She said at the Writing the Star Wars Universe panel at MegaCon 2026 (via PopVerse):
A couple of times I was like, ‘Really? Really, no Mara Jade?’ And they were like, ‘[Stern voice] Nope.’
Timothy Zahn, who created Mara Jade and Thrawn, was also at this panel and confirmed he too has been told not to use the former character for his in-canon Star Wars works. Ok… why? I understand that Mara Jade’s entire EU history can’t be made to fit within canon. Frankly, given what we’ve learned about Luke Skywalker post-Return of the Jedi, the possibility that he was married to her for a time, or any woman for that matter, is close to zero.
But again, it’s all about adaptation. There are ways to tweak Mara Jade’s backstory so that she can seamlessly fit into canon while making sure the spirit of the character isn’t compromised. Thrawn’s schemes and actions from Timothy Zahn’s Legends books haven’t been replicated on the official timeline, but that hasn’t made him any less entertaining to follow along with in Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka and the in-canon novels Zahn’s written since 2017.
So when what is it about Mara Jade that makes Lucasfilm so reluctant to bring her back? My best guess with no additional information is that she’s too closely tied to a side of Luke Skywalker that the company has no interest in even approaching across any of its works. I hope Lucasfilm changes its mind about Mara at some point, though. She’s more than worthy of including in one of the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows, even if she has nothing to do with Luke. For now, I’ll just have to be content with the reemergence of Thrawn in Ahsoka Season 2 later this year.
