With the release of Maul – Shadow Lord and the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu film, Star Wars is back in the spotlight. And while there are some really exciting things on the horizon for Star Wars, Lucasfilm is still hesitant to bring in aspects from the Legends continuity into the Disney era of Star Wars. While it feels like Maul attempting to make a rose colored Twi’lek an apprentice is a nod to Darth Talon (a red Sith Twi’lek), don’t expect to see other Legends characters like Mara Jade anytime soon.
It’s not even in the live-action/animated realm that LucasFilm is blocking Mara Jade from – even canon novels can’t bring her in. Claudia Gray, who wrote the canon novel Star Wars: Bloodline; revealed at MegaCon 2026 that Lucasfilm firmly refused her request to bring in Mara Jade.
“A couple of times I was like, ‘Really? Really, no Mara Jade?’ And they were like, ‘[Stern voice] Nope’.”
Even Timothy Zahn, who introduced the character in his novel Heir to the Empire, and then subsequently wrote the in-canon Thrawn trilogy novels, revealed that LucasFilm does not want Mara Jade in any canon project. Why is that? Mara Jade is an incredibly rich character who starts as a force-sensitive assassin for Emperor Palpatine and eventually falls in love with Luke Skywalker. It would be such a good dynamic to explore more of and would give fans a new look at a complex female character. You would think Lucasfilm would jump at the opportunity.
Granted, inserting Mara Jade may cause complications to the broader Disney-canon Star Wars world, especially with how they shaped Luke’s story in the sequel trilogy. Bringing in a love interest and even giving Luke children would definitely need to be handled properly, if they wanted to do it and still keep the events of episodes 7, 8, & 9 as is. However, if they can insert Maul’s rich story after bringing him back from the dead, a well-qualified writer could certainly find a way.
What do you think of Mara Jade? Would you like to see her in the current canon or are you happy to keep her in the Legends realm?
A girl with too many fandoms to count.
