Mark Hamill’s return as Luke Skywalker in the season finale of The Mandalorian did more than just wrap things up on a high note: it also opened up the possibility for more crossovers from the Expanded Universe. Mandalorian’s setting five years after Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi runs parallel with the timeline of Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy, generally regarded as one of the foundations of Star Wars Legends. And while a full-blown adaption of it or other key Legends concepts like Star Wars: The Force Unleashed might not be possible, bringing Luke more formally into the Mandalorian-era is a clear signal that Star Wars is keeping its options open.
Zahn’s novels followed Luke and the other core trilogy characters as they struggled to rebuild the Republic amid an Imperial counteroffensive let by Grand Admiral Thrawn (whom Zahn created). The books proved extremely popular, and a few figures like Thrawn managed to work their way into the new canon, but the bulk of the novels was largely ignored. George Lucas was infamously not a fan of the trilogy’s heroine, Mara Jade, which dampened enthusiasm for more rigorous adaptions of her character. But with Disney now in charge and with figures like Jade as popular as ever, those rules may have changed. Luke’s arrival in The Mandalorian makes an easy stepping stone into Zahn’s books, and from there into a huge array of Legends concepts crossing over into canon.
The Mandalorian shares a lot of its themes with Zahn’s novels: dealing with the compromises of a post-war galaxy and characters who struggle with the trauma of the past. Figures like Mara Jade fit into that mold perfectly. She was Palpatine’s trained assassin, and psychic commands from the Emperor stayed in her mind even after his death. More specifically, she’d been ordered to kill Luke, and the season finale of The Mandalorian featured her target crossing paths with Din Djarin. In other words, she could easily be introduced by running into Mando on her hunt for Skywalker. With Cara Dune off the drawing board, there’s an opening for a strong recurring female character to bounce off of the protagonist in interesting ways.
Such thematic matches are not limited to The Mandalorian. The same potential applies to other characters such as Starkiller, whom Dave Filoni floated as a possible inclusion in Star Wars: Rebels. His status as Vader’s apprentice makes him a strong fit for a project like Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, and the direct connection between figures like Starkiller and larger canon characters like Vader makes it easier for writers to create drama between them. It also means that future cameos from franchise staples like Luke can continue to carry dramatic weight, instead of being reduced to a one-note curtain call.
With the Skywalker saga now complete, filmmakers will likely be hunting for something suitably grand and epic for future movies. The Legends material provides a good deal of fodder for such notions, both before and after the Rebellion. The Lost Tribe of the Sith series, for instance, provides clear impetus for a Jedi-based story at the same time (the distant past during the foundation of the Republic), while the New Jedi Order era gives Rey Skywalker somewhere to go post-Star Wars: Episode IX – The Rise of Skywalker.
This idea applies to smaller concepts as well as larger ones. One of Zahn’s more brilliant notions was Nomad City, a moving fortress built on the top of modified AT-ATs and run by Lando Calrissian. Not only can such concepts be more readily used now, but bringing in the likes of Billy Dee Williams or Donald Glover suddenly feels much more probable, turning an elegant abstract concept into a brilliant bit of Easter egg fun.
As fruitful as many Legends ideas can be, not all of them can make the cut. The Solo twins simply don't work in light of the sequel trilogy, for instance, while figures such as the Yuuzhan Vong become extremely problematic for the same reasons. But it’s easier – and often more popular – to draw on a well-regarded original creation rather than trying to create one completely from scratch. The question becomes how much of a given notion will appear in a project, and how well the creators can separate what’s usable from what simply can’t be reconciled. But Hamill’s cameo demonstrates Lucasfilm's willingness to engage in such a task with much more vigor in the future, and with creative figures like Filoni adept at developing older concepts in exciting ways, the possibilities have never been stronger.
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