Could Mara Jade Make An Appearance In Star Wars: Episode IX?

The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy has so far offered a drastically different post-Return of the Jedi world from the one seen in the Expanded Universe fiction, now known as Star Wars Legends. Nonetheless, some fans are clinging to the hope that a few of their favorite non-canonical characters will make the jump to the big screen, and in a new piece from CinemaBlend, the case is assessed of whether Luke Skywalker’s EU wife Mara Jade might show up in next year’s Star Wars: Episode IX.

It’s worth noting that this idea hasn’t come out of thin air. Earlier this year, a casting call reportedly went out that was looking for “a female lead, 40-50 years old, to play the role of MARA.” Naturally, the name was enough to inspire the wishful thinking of fans, and when the casting of Keri Russell in an unnamed role was announced a few months later, some theorists put two and two together.

Nonetheless, subsequent statements from the character’s creator Timothy Zahn cast such speculation into doubt, suggesting that the “Mara” name might well have been little more than a spoiler-protective placeholder. What’s more, with Luke now passed away, it feels at least one film too late to bring the character into the series. After all, there’s only so much time J.J. Abrams can spend on flashbacks when he has a trilogy to wrap up.

That being said, the CinemaBlend piece offers the suggestion that perhaps this “Mara” figure is inspired in part by Mara Jade, channeling the spirit of the character but rewritten to fit the context of the Sequel Trilogy. That’s just speculation for now, but we’ll see “Mara” in action either way when Star Wars: Episode IX hits theaters on December 20th, 2019.