Despite being one of the most iconic Star Wars characters outside of its major live-action and animated projects, Mara Jade is one character that unfortunately hasn’t been able to claw her way back into the canon side of the franchise. While some concepts from Star Wars Legends have trickled through into canon Star Wars projects over the years to allow for new storytelling potential, Disney has refused to allow certain fan-favorite characters like Mara to make their way over.
Thankfully, after years of fans hoping to see an official acknowledgment or project involving one of the most popular but lesser-known Skywalkers, Mara Jade is officially returning in a new official Disney release.
Announced on the official EA forums, Capital Games Team developer CG_Meathead revealed that Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes will be receiving a series of updates as a part of ‘The Myths & Legends Era’ that are bringing numerous characters from early concept art, fan concepts, and even Star Wars legends into the free-to-play mobile experience. Notably, this includes the first playable appearance of Mara Jade Skywalker in over 20 years.
The first official game that lets you play as Mara Jade Skywalker was the 2005 release of the Empire at War strategy game.
Alongside a version of Mara Jade towards the end of her story wielding a blue lightsaber, fans can also expect to see The Ronin from Star Wars Visions, early concept variants of a Stormtrooper and Luke, Jaxxon from the Legends comics, and most surprisingly of all, Darth Jar Jar, whose origins come from a fan-made Reddit post back in 2015.
For some fans, it may be slightly disheartening to see that Mara is being included alongside the likes of joke characters and concepts that never existed outside some early drafts. Nonetheless, it’s at least a sign that Disney’s era of Star Wars can acknowledge the existence of Legends content that fans have been begging to see get an official return for decades at this point.
EA has already announced the abilities and kits for the first five characters we can expect to see in Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes, even including additional concepts like a Darth Yoda variant as a part of the new content wave. Mara Jade’s abilities are set to pair even better alongside Luke Skywalker himself.
While there is no shortage of Legends projects fans want to see included in the new era of Star Wars, an adaptation of Mara Jade is already fairly high on the list. If the update is met with enough positive reception from fans, it could very well open the door for even more gaming adaptations in the future as well that explore forgotten stories from the expansive history of the Star Wars universe.
- TV Show(s)
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The Mandalorian, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka, The Acolyte, Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, Lando, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, Star Wars: Resistance, Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures, Star Wars: Visions
- Cast
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Mark Hamill, James Earl Jones, David Prowse, Carrie Fisher, Harrison Ford, Daisy Ridley, Adam Driver, Ian McDiarmid, Ewan McGregor, Rosario Dawson, Lars Mikkelsen, Rupert Friend, Moses Ingram, Frank Oz, Pedro Pascal
- Movie(s)
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Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope, Star Wars: Episode V – The Empire Strikes Back, Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi, Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens, Star Wars: Episode VIII – The Last Jedi, Star Wars: Episode IX- The Rise of Skywalker, Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars: Dawn of the Jedi, Star Wars: New Jedi Order