How 'Heir To The Empire' Influenced 'Star Wars' Canon
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“I started hearing whispers about Thrawn’s return as heir to the Empire.”
- Ahsoka Tahno in Ahsoka teaser trailer
A long time ago…before there was any talk of prequels or sequels, something appeared on the Star Wars horizon. In 1991, a new Star Wars trilogy was launched in novel form. Lucasfilm tapped Timothy Zahn, a well-known science fiction writer, to write a trilogy of novels that would become the take-off point for the Star Wars Expanded Universe. This delighted fans who had been wishing for new Star Wars material since the 1983 release of Return of the Jedi. Sure, there were novelizations of the movies, but everything seemed to end at the bonfire on the moon of Endor. Now came Heir to the Empire which showed how the fledgling New Republic was faring five years after the downfall of the Empire. Fans saw what happened to their favorite Rebels after the fighting had ended. The Thrawn Trilogy, as it became to be known, soared to the #1 spot on the New York Times Bestseller list.
On October 30, 2012, the Star Wars universe had a cosmic shift. Disney bought Lucasfilm for over $4 billion. Everyone was assured that this would usher in a new era of creativity. However, once the dust had settled, fans found out that some other creative aspects had been pared from the universe that they had grown to love. We were told that some of the new stories would be relegated to “Legends” status and Disney would decide what would be kept on as official “canon.” To the dismay of many, The Thrawn Trilogy was now deemed “Legends” material, not part of the official storytelling anymore.
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However, Zahn and The Thrawn Trilogy had already left their mark on the Star Wars galaxy. In 1999, the long-awaited prequel series debuted with The Phantom Menace. Written by George Lucas, it showed a fully developed Coruscant, the seat of the Republic and home to the Jedi Temple. However, Lucas was not the first writer to mention this all-important planet. Amazingly, almost a decade after its publication, the source material for the capital planet was taken right from Heir to the Empire:
“He had argued strongly against moving the center of the New Republic here to Coruscant; had argued even more strongly against setting up their fledgling government in the old Imperial Palace” (Heir to the Empire, p. 15).
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In A New Hope, Princess Leia’s message to Obi-Wan Kenobi mentions his involvement in the Clone Wars. There aren’t too many details about the conflict at the time. In Heir to the Empire, Zahn filled in the blanks with the idea of a dark Jedi being cloned:
“Joruus C’baoth - note the telltale mispronunciation of the name Jorus - is a clone” (Heir to the Empire, p. 55).
We would finally find out about the clone troopers as the precursors to the Imperial stormtroopers in Attack of the Clones. If we jump ahead to The Rise of Skywalker, this idea of cloning a dark Jedi comes to light as we find out that Palpatine survived his fall into the reactor in the second Death Star by sending his consciousness out to a clone of himself. This seems to come right from Zahn’s book.
Almost two years later, a new animated Star Wars series debuted on the Disney Channel and its sister station, Disney XD. Of course, this was not the first animated series to tell Star Wars stories. The Clone Wars debuted in 2008 on Cartoon Network, fleshing out the events between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Star Wars Rebels also came on the scene to show us the inner workings of a group of people who would become our beloved Rebel Alliance. When the Spectres burst onto the scene, they also brought some old friends and ideas with them.
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This turned out to be an old foe, Grand Admiral Thrawn himself. Thrawn was established as a formidable force from the beginning of Heir to the Empire. Every detail, from his Chiss species, blue skin, and red glowing eyes made the jump from page to screen.
“He sat motionlessly, his shimmery blue-black hair glinting in the dim light, his pale blue skin looking cool and subdued and very alien on his otherwise human frame. His eyes were nearly closed as he leaned back against the headrest, only a glint of red showing between the lids” (Heir to the Empire, p. 6).
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Thrawn (voiced by Lars Mikkelsen) also brought many allies along for the ride in his return to canon. His Noghri assassin Rukh appeared in Star Wars Rebels throughout Season 4. Despite being a main character in Heir to the Empire, Captain Gilad Pellaeon’s voice was only heard in the series finale of Star Wars Rebels. The penultimate episode of The Mandalorian Season 3 would see the military leader appear in hologram. Thrawn’s flagship, the Chimaera, was shown in detail on Rebels. The series also depicted his unique method of predicting his enemies based on their art and culture.
“Learn about art. When you understand a species’ art, you understand that species” (Heir to the Empire, p. 10).
At the end of Rebels, Ezra used the Purrgils to whisk Thrawn and himself into the far reaches of space. The recently released Ahsoka trailer at Star Wars Celebration has now confirmed that Timothy Zahn’s creation will return in live-action with Lars Mikkelson reprising his role as the cunning strategist. It is clear we will have the answer to Ahsoka’s “Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?” when the series premieres on Disney+ in August this year.
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Source(s): Heir to the Empire, Wikipedia, Disney+
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