Timothy Zahn wrote a fantastic trilogy of Star Wars books in the early 90s when Star Wars was all but dead. Zahn’s Thrawn Trilogy were wonderfully imaginative , beautifully written, and character driven. They broke the Star Wars Expanded Universe wide open for hundreds of other books. Many of these other books were really good (but some weren’t) but none held a candle to The Thrawn Trilogy.
Zahn sat down with EW and discussed the his thoughts on the next Trilogy. Below is part of the article. Check this link for the whole article.
Although no one outside of Lucas and Disney executives know the content of the planned movie sequels, the first of which would come out in 2015, they will more than likely be original tales.
That means Zahn’s books won’t be directly adapted, but the author says that was always the case: “The books were always just the books.”
But years ago, he was briefed on Lucas’ plans for sequels, and how the Thrawn books would fit in. “The original idea as I understood it— and Lucas changes his mind off and on, so it may not be what he’s thinking right now – but it was going to be three generations. You’d have the original trilogy, then go back to Luke’s father and find out what happened to him [in the prequels], and if there was another 7th, 8th, or 9th film, it would be Luke’s children. The Thrawn Trilogy really would have fit into the gap,” the author said.
The author gave a name to the galaxy’s capital planet – Coruscant – which Lucas kept for the prequels, and he introduced some beloved figures that any later Star Wars movie would be wise to remember.
Foremost among them was the femme fatale Mara Jade, an Imperial assassin who becomes a love interest for Luke Skywalker. (No more kissing your sister, bub.) And Han Solo and Princess Leia give birth to twins in the third Thrawn book, The Last Command.
“Another thing in the Thrawn trilogy was the catching of Force lightning with a lightsaber blade. Apparently, George thought that was a cool visual and put it in Attack of the Clones andRevenge of the Sith, so he has been keeping a close eye on what has been done,” Zahn says. (Via EW)
