Summary

• Many elements of Mara Jade's character from Star Wars Legends could be adapted into canon, such as the concept of the Emperor's Hand and Palpatine's force-sensitive agents.
• Mara Jade's mission to kill Luke Skywalker could be reimagined in canon, with a different approach due to existing plotlines.
• The story of a former Imperial agent becoming a smuggler could be replicated in canon, potentially with Greef Karga taking on a similar role to Talon Karrde.

Former Emperor Hand and Luke Skywalker's wife in Star Wars Legends, Mara Jade is a character who has yet to appear in canon - but many of her core concepts could yet be copied. Star Wars has been a transmedia franchise since the beginning, but the old Expanded Universe was only truly born in 1991 with the publication of Timothy Zahn's "Thrawn Trilogy." These stories were all branded Legends shortly after Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, officially non-canon, but they have become more important than ever before; Grand Admiral Thrawn is now a power player in the canon Star Wars galaxy.
Naturally, there's intense debate over whether other characters from Zahn's books could make their way into canon. One character who is sadly unlikely, though, is Mara Jade - the Emperor's Hand, an agent of Palpatine who ultimately became Luke Skywalker's wife in Legends. That particular romance seems impossible given Luke Skywalker's fate in Star Wars canon, but elements of her story - and even the Emperor's Hand title itself - have also been adapted. Here are the remaining elements that haven't made their way into canon, along with how they could yet occur.

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