Star Wars Viewers Torn Over Live-Action Mara Jade Casting

Star Wars fans are torn on the idea of Mara Jade, a popular Star Wars: Legends character, being brought into live-action.

Hardcore Star Wars fans will know Mara Jade quite well but for those who don’t, she was formerly an agent of Emperor Palpatine, tasked with finding and killing Luke Skywalker.

When she does eventually find Luke instead of fighting to the death they actually fall in love, and the two get together as Jedi Masters at Luke’s new academy.

It’s a lovely story but not one that’s canon unfortunately, as when Disney acquired the rights to Star Wars it made much of the extended universe lore more like spin-off material than part of the actual timeline.

That said there’s a rumour going around that the character will make their live-action debut in the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter film, starring Ryan Gosling.

Recently the wider cast was announced and it was revealed Amy Adams would be part of the film, and many are now speculating she’ll be playing Mara Jade. It’s caused a lot of debate amongst the Star Wars community, with many torn between their desire to see Mara become canon, but not so keen on the idea of it being like this.

“No cause if so, that means she’s canon and doesn’t end up with Luke Iike she should’ve” said one fan.

“Well, she can have her name, but it won’t be the Mara Jade that EU fans fell in love with” added another.

The issue many have with this potential casting is because they don’t think it could work with the timeline. Star Wars: Starfighter is set after the events of Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker, and Luke is long-gone by this point, implying the two won’t have shared a history.

That said there’s still a lot we don’t know about Luke’s Jedi Academy before Kylo Ren tore it down. Mara Jade could have definitely been there, though potentially killed in the attack, which would make Luke’s life as a hermit make more sense. This theory could easily fall apart though if the character Amy Adams is playing is alive and well in the film.

A stronger theory is that Amy Adams will simply play a new Jedi character. I’m hoping this isn’t the case, as not every Star Wars project needs a Jedi for it to be interesting, Andor proved that.