How Mara Jade Could Become Canon (And Why She Can't)
Mara Jade-Skywalker is one of the few prominent Legends characters who have yet to transition from Legends to Canon. Introduced by Timothy Zahn in his popular Thrawn Trilogy in the early 1990s, she was featured in several post-Return of the Jedi Legends novels through the Legacy of the Force series. Mara Jade started her career as the Emperor's Hand, a force-sensitive woman sworn to do the clandestine bidding of Emperor Palpatine, neutralizing Palpatine's enemies both inside and outside the Empire.
However, Palpatine's death at Endor left her adrift and led her into the shadowy world of smugglers, where she eventually crossed paths with Luke Skywalker, the man Emperor Palpatine had commanded her to kill. During the Thrawn Trilogy, Mara Jade grudgingly allied herself with Luke and his friends, eventually killing a clone of Luke created by mad Jedi Jorrus C'Baoth, purging her of the Emperor's last command and allowing her to begin to forge a relationship with Luke.
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Following the events of the Thrawn Trilogy, Luke and Mara ally themselves on several other missions. Mare and Luke eventually marry, she becomes a Jedi Knight, and Mara and Luke even have a child, Ben Skywalker. Tragically, Mara later dies at the hand of her nephew, Jacen Solo/Darth Caedus, son of Han and Leia, as he falls to the Dark Side and instigates a new galactic civil war.
Unlike numerous Legends characters, including Grand Admiral Thrawn, whose novels introduced Mara Jade's character, Mara herself has yet to make the same journey over to Canon, or, at least, there have been no official plans to bring her over, even though she is a fan favorite (and my own namesake) character in Legends. There is a myriad of ways she could be brought into Canon in some form, yet a myriad of reasons why she could not. This article will highlight some explanations for each side.
How Mara Jade Could Become Canon
1. Instead of being the Emperor's Hand, Mara could be an Inquisitor. Star Wars Rebels introduced the concept of the Inquisitors, the Empire's hand-picked army of Jedi Hunters, force-sensitive beings trained to help the Empire hunt down and eliminate Jedi who managed to survive Order 66. Inquisitors, including some who have been featured on Rebels, will be playing a significant part in the upcoming Kenobi live-action series set to premiere on Disney+ soon.
Mara could fit in as one, given that she is Force-sensitive and initially served as an agent of the Empire in Legends, although, depending on her assignments, her services as an Inquisitor might make it difficult to portray her as a sympathetic character. Thus far, the Inquisitors from Star Wars Rebels and Jedi: Fallen Order have generally seemed pretty villainous. However, Anakin Skywalker, despite his many atrocities and decades-long service to the Empire, turned back to the light side and was redeemed in Return of the Jedi, so Mara's similar redemption and going on to becoming a force (pun intended) for good is not entirely out of the question.
2. The death of Emperor Palpatine and Darth Vader and the subsequent fall of the Empire led to Mara becoming a smuggler with Talon Karrde and his crew operating in the underworld, which has been increasingly well-established in various Star Wars stories. This part of her storyline could easily remain intact and allow her to interact with multiple Canon characters, both old and new. She and her crew could even have dealings with Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was brought into Canon in Star Wars Rebels and is rumored to be part of the upcoming Ashoka live-action series. Smuggler Talon Karrde could also be re-introduced into Canon with minor (if any) changes.
3. Mara was already retconned into the events of the original trilogy, at least before Disney acquired Lucasfilm. In Zahn's original Thrawn Trilogy, Mara revealed to Luke that she had infiltrated Jabba's Palace during the events of Return of the Jedi, disguised as "Arrica," a slave dancer in Jabba's court. However, due to Jabba's refusal to allow her to accompany him on his (ill-fated) Sail Barge, her plans to assassinate Luke were ultimately thwarted. In the 1993 NPR adaptation of Return of the Jedi, "Arica" was written into a short scene in Jabba's palace with C-3P0.
Why Mara Jade Could Not Become Canon
1. Due to the shape and direction taken by the sequel trilogy, fitting Mara's Legends storyline into Canon would be practically impossible without some serious retconning that is not even remotely hinted at by the sequel trilogy. For example, there are currently zero indications that Luke had any romantic relationships with anybody between the events of Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. This is not to say that this completely rules out the chance of creating some minor off-screen interaction(s) between Mara and Luke.
However, based on what we have learned so far about Luke's activities between the events of the original trilogy and sequel trilogy, it seems that Luke was more dedicated to scouring the galaxy for Jedi relics and rebuilding the Jedi Order than settling down and having a family, although, in the excellent expanded novelization of The Last Jedi by Jason Fry, Luke dreams about how his life and the fate of the galaxy might have been different, had he not left Tatooine during the events of A New Hope, which, for him included having a wife (but it wasn't Mara).
2. Mara's absence during major galactic events would be difficult, if not impossible, to explain, especially if she pops up in any post-sequel trilogy content. In all fairness, this is a problem that I am noticing more and more in the current Star Wars canon, where significant characters like Ashoka and Thrawn have re-appeared or are expected to re-appear in post-Return of the Jedi content after having appeared before the original trilogy.
While these characters were created after the original trilogy's release, their continued existence raises issues that seem difficult to explain. Mara Jade was also created after the original trilogy, but long before the sequel trilogy was created, and the decision was obviously made by Lucasfilm to not adapt the Thrawn Trilogy, nor include any of its characters, so putting Mara into the current Canon storyline now would be akin to trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. It could conceivably be done, but it would likely be messy and perhaps not worth it.
Nothing would please me more to have my absolute favorite Star Wars character, the character I purposely legally named myself after, to make the transition from Legends to Canon. However, I also recognize some potential challenges and pitfalls to making that happen. If they somehow decide to bring her over to Canon, I want it to be done the right way, in such a way that would do her legendary character justice. I do not want Lucasfilm to just bring her so that she would be virtually unrecognizable, nor unable to fit into the current Canon credibly.
Regardless of whether she becomes an official Canon character or not, her character is still immortalized in the Legends books, which are still widely available and able to be enjoyed by all Star Wars fans, which is ultimately the most important thing to remember.
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