Luke Skywalker animated series coming? Is this why Mara Jade is a no-go character for Star Wars writers?

Star Wars has suffered a lot in recent years, but the Force works in mysterious ways and it seems things may be healing with the return of the original – and best – hero, Luke Skywalker.

Played by Mark Hamill in the Original Trilogy, Luke was the poster boy for heroism to a whole generation of kids, the measure to hold heroes to, the face of all that was good and noble in the universe.

Then, aside from a fantastic moment in The Mandalorian season 2 (below), Disney proceeded to tear him down, make him a failed recluse who eventually died in a fight he didn’t even really turn up for… IYKYK.

There has been much speculation over the years, some foundless, some not, that Disney, under Kathleen Kennedy, had an underlying plan to destroy the OT characters, but Luke in particular, and, well, they did.

But that might be about to change:

Luke skywalker will be on the next season of “tales of the Jedi”

— FivesWalker (@FivesWalker) April 20, 2026

Over the last few years, there has been talk of a Luke Skywalker animated series, exploring what Luke did in the years between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens… we know he built his Jedi Academy and then saw it destroyed thanks to Kylo Ren and we know he briefly trained Grogu (thanks to The Book of Boba Fett) but the rest is something of a mystery.

And we Star Wars fans love a good mystery.

Now, a new report, above, states that Luke is coming back and in animated form for a future Tales of the Jedi series.

Tales of the Jedi season one in 2022 (there has also been Tales of the Empire and Tales of the Underworld) focused on characters like Count Dooku and Qui Gon Jinn and guided us through unknown chapters in their stories and now it seems that Luke is getting the same treatment.

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Tidbit

In a recent interview, Mark Hamill, who portrayed Luke in Star Wars Episodes IV-IX, said he believes his time as the iconic hero is done: “I think I’ve had my time. Especially in the middle one, I’m only in cameos in [Episode VII] and [Episode IX]. The only time he was part of the narrative was in Episode VIII, and they wrapped up my story. I think it’s funny that people miss the irony that he died from an overdose of the Force,” said Hamill.

“I mean, who knew that was even a thing? Don’t you think if there was even a marginal chance that using the Force could be lethal, Obi-Wan would’ve said ‘Use the Force in moderation, Luke?’ Or Yoda would’ve said ‘Overdo Force projection, you must not?’ Nobody warned me! But obviously, they concluded his story, he died.

“And I thought…in fact, not only did I think that was the right time to leave that franchise, I thought that’s a nice exit. Because as much as you enjoy a good entrance, you want to dignify a good exit.”

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The new rumour comes from X user @FivesWalker, who says that the return of Luke could be in a completely new ‘Tales of’ with it not necessarily being ‘of the Jedi’.

It’s also worth pointing out that @FivesWalker, while not having a big following, has been leaking reliable news in recent months, especially around the now-airing Maul: Shadow Lord and he is also reporting a new live-action series is currently being mapped out in a writers’ room – we’ll have to wait and see if that pans out

Personally, I would love to see a Tales of the Jedi Academy or Tales of the Skywalkers series expanding on the story of Luke, the story we still don’t know much about and a story that hopefully will mean Luke’s ending at Disney might actually be the one he deserves.

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Tidbit:

Luke arrives to save the gang in The Mandalorian S02E16.

This happened in June 2022 and may still be the biggest moment in
Star Wars since Disney took over:

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Interestingly, we recently learned that one of the EU’s favourite characters, Mara Jade, is a big no-go area for current Star Wars writers.

Jade was first introduced in Timothy Zahn’s excellent Thrawn Trilogy as The Emperor’s Hand, an elite Force user who was a killer/hunter for Emperor Palpatine. She was eventually sent after Luke Skywalker, whom she eventually fell in love with, and they married and had kids.

The Thrawn books also introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn who has appeared in Star Wars Rebels and the Ahsoka series and has been set up to be a big part of Star Wars moving forward.

But still no Mara Jade, left.

At MegaCon 2026, Bloodline author Claudia Gray said she was recently stonewalled when it came to Jade appearing in a future story: “A couple of times I was like, ‘Really? Really, no Mara Jade?’ And they were like, ‘Nope!”’

Zahn, Jade’s creator, who also writes for Star Wars’ new continuity, said that he, too, was told the character was out of bounds, and this has been the case since 2024, when he first said he asked about writing the character into the new canon: “I keep nudging Lucasfilm, asking them if I could write a book [featuring Mara Jade]. The answers come back basically somewhere between ‘no’ and ‘heck no.'”

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Tidbit:

There has been fan speculation that Amy Adams, who is set to appear in the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter alongside Ryan Reynolds, could be playing Mara Jade, but with that movie taking place approximately 40 years after Return of the Jedi and five years after Luke’s death, she’s much too young to be playing her at just 51.

But it is nice to know that the fans are still holding out hope of seeing the character brought to life.

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It has been assumed that Disney/Lucasfilm have no interest in using Mara Jade, despite the original fans loving her, but I’m now wondering if this new Luke series is part of the reason why? We have 30 years of Luke’s story to be told, and while I’m pretty sure he doesn’t have kids in canon anymore, it could certainly turn out that he did meet and fall in love with Jade.

Now that’s a story I think I would like to see told onscreen.

Thoughts? I know you have them, and I wanna hear ’em all.

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Gina Carano ‘has had talks’ with Filoni and Favreau… Cara Dune returning to Star Wars?

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Source: Bespin Bulletin