Lucasfilm has integrated a number of Star Wars Legends characters into the canon franchise, but there is one that they have repeatedly vetoed despite interest from both current and previous talent — Mara Jade. In addition, it appears that stories tied to the era of the Old Republic are in a similar boat, being restricted by Lucasfilm for the foreseeable future.
Popverse reports that, during a MegaCon panel, fans were curious about what sorts of stories were vetoed by Lucasfilm. Two prolific Star Wars authors — Claudia Gray (Lost Stars, Bloodline, Leia, Princess of Alderaan) and Timothy Zahn (who created Mara Jade for The Thrawn Trilogy of novels) — both individually asked about the possibility of using Mara Jade in future Star Wars stories. Lucasfilm poured cold water on both authors, as Gray revealed by noting that she had multiple ideas for stories with the character that never came to pass:
“A couple of times I was like, ‘Really? Really, no Mara Jade?’ And they were like, ‘Nope.’”
Zahn also chipped in, saying he had asked a few times as well, to no avail. Mara Jade has a particularly interesting history in the Star Wars franchise, being one of the first female protagonists introduced outside of Princess Leia to be featured repeatedly across multimedia storylines and the first to receive her own action figure from Hasbro. George Lucas was famously not a fan of the character, and particularly took issue with her marriage to Luke Skywalker years after her introduction — to the point where he made it clear that in his treatments for sequels, Luke did not get married.
Mara Jade’s lack of appearances hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about her possibility of integration into the Disney-produced canon – as far back as the days of The Force Awakens, fans tried connecting the dots for some kind of appearance. With The Rise of Skywalker, a character listing for the role of Zorii Bliss was given the codename of “Mara”. Most recently, character details for Amy Adams in Star Wars: Starfighter led some to believe that she might just be an analogue for Jade. The first two cases failed to materialize, and the last seems highly unlikely given Lucasfilm’s insistence not to use the character (who would have to be heavily reimagined to suit the overall story of the canon).
Furthermore, it also appears that Lucasfilm is holding up potential stories set in the Old Republic era of the franchise, which they claim to have plans for. Gray explained that she’s interested in the backstories of two characters from Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR for short), among other stories, but none have been greenlit:
“I mean, for me, I’m like, when are you going to start writing KOTOR novels? I want to do a bunch of those! I already explained that if there is a book that is the backstory of [core KOTOR characters] Mission and Zaalbar, and I didn’t write it, there will be blood.”
Former Marvel Star Wars editor and current IDW editor, Heather Antos, also explained that she wants in, but hasn’t heard anything:
“When I started at Marvel, there were two things I pitched every day, and it was let me do Thrawn comics – which I eventually got to do – and then KOTOR, which I’m still waiting [to do].”
This most likely has to do with a lack of progress on the remake of Knights of the Old Republic (at least until recently, supposedly) and the fact that a spiritual successor, Fate of the Old Republic, is also a while away (but will hopefully release this decade), and which may or may not be a part of Star Wars canon. It’s always easier to do tie-in literature when there’s material to help bolster its sales. KOTOR will likely have its time in the sun, but that time is sadly somewhere toward the horizon and not here.
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.