Mara Jade Is The Best Star Wars Character And She’s Impossible To Use
Mara Jade's story is too entangled with the young Luke Skywalker to be portrayed without recasting the franchise's most important character.
Mara Jade first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, which was recently namechecked in the trailer for the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series Ahsoka. However, the evocative phrase was being used to reference Grand Admiral Thrawn, who will finally be appearing as a live-action character (portrayed by Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels), not the former Emperor’s Hand, and there’s a good reason for that. Despite Mara Jade being the most complex and nuanced character introduced in the now-defunct Star Wars Expanded Universe, she’s absolutely impossible to use in Disney’s new canon.
In Heir to the Empire, Mara Jade was introduced as the “Emperor’s Hand,” the then-deceased Palpatine’s (don’t worry: somehow, he returned) most elite assassin and agent, who survived the fall of the Empire with one final mission from her master: kill Luke Skywalker. Who exactly the Heir to the Empire title is referring to is debatable; certainly, Thrawn is carrying on Palpatine’s goal of galactic conquest, while a new fallen Jedi character named Joruus C’baoth fits in nicely as a replacement evil old guy who shoots lightning at people.
But Mara Jade also fits the bill, because she is the character in the book who is directly carrying on Palpatine’s final wishes, to exterminate the Jedi once and for all. But it will never work in this new canon, because Mara Jade’s story arc is inextricably linked to Luke Skywalker and there is no way that Lucasfilm can suspend disbelief in Mark Hamill’s digitally de-aged Jedi long enough for an emotionally satisfying narrative and it can’t recast him without fans massively turning on the franchise.
Mara Jade’s entire story is that she remains loyal to the Emperor after his death in Return of the Jedi, fixated on fulfilling his last command (not coincidentally, the title of the finale of the Thrawn Trilogy) and killing Luke. That is, until they have to partner up in a kind of Force-sensitive buddy action-comedy, she develops a grudging respect for the Jedi, and eventually learns that she had been lied to by the Emperor for years and was just one of many Hands that all thought they were his super-special, unique operative.
Then Mara Jade and Luke eventually fall in love and have a kid, she becomes a Jedi Master and galactic hero in her own right, and eventually dies at the hands of Han Solo and Leia’s son-turned-Sith, who is definitely not Kylo Ren. The thing that sets Mara Jade apart from Thrawn and C’baoth is that she is a fully realized character who has her own journey, not just an obstacle to be defeated by our heroes. That’s what makes her and her story the best.
In order to follow this plot in any meaningful way, Mara Jade’s entire story would basically have to be a two-hander with Luke Skywalker. While the Disney-owned Lucasfilm has shown a willingness to include a post-Return of the Jedi, pre-The Force Awakens Luke as a character, it is pretty clear that it intends to use him for splashy guest appearances rather than as the co-star of a series.
The unavoidable problem is Mark Hamill is 71 years old, and all the de-aging CGI in the world can’t get him back in fighting trim to pretend to be in his mid-30s for extended action sequences and storytelling. After fans complained about the uncanny valley of his appearance in The Mandalorian, he was replaced entirely by deepfake tech and a stand-in model for his appearances in The Book of Boba Fett. But once you play with digital trickery enough to have a young Luke Skywalker fight, first against and then alongside, Mara Jade, haven’t you just recast the most iconic character in the Star Wars franchise?
If Solo: A Star Wars Story showed us anything, it’s that fans don’t really like it when you try to swap out one of their most beloved characters and act as if nothing happened. Sadly, we’re probably never going to get Mara Jade in the new Star Wars canon because then you’d need to have a whole new Luke (or a massively expensive ongoing CGI character that will be exhaustively examined and criticized) to go on the journey with her. It just won’t work.
