Star Wars: Rebels and Disney Finally Dip into Alt-Canon

For the first time since Disney bought LucasFilm and subsequently eradicated the expanded Star Wars Universe we might finally be seeing the slow thaw on that initial action. Many fans of Star Wars have been deeply disappointed that Disney made a decision to declare that over 20 years worth of Star Wars stories, that were originally canon, are now no better than fan-fiction. Clearly if you've seen Force Awakens it is extremely clear that they veered pretty far from what early Star Wars writers Timothy Zahn, Kevin J. Anderson, Michael Stackpole, Kathy Tyers and many others who basically held the Star Wars fandom together between Return of the Jedi in 1983 and the prequels starting in 1999. If you've read Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy then you know what I'm talking about. The books were fantastic, better than any novelization about Star Wars up to that point in 1991. It spawned a whole new era in Star Wars stories when we thought we would never get a sequel to Return of the Jedi. So yeah it kind of stings to see great characters like Talon Karrde, Mara Jade, Corran Horn and Grand Admiral Thrawn get thrown to the wayside.

Now if you've seen the newest trailer for Season 3 of Star Wars: Rebels you might have noticed a blue faced scary operator tasked as the big bad for the season to hunt and destroy Ezra, Kanan and the rest of the rag-tag Rebels crew. That's right none other than the main man himself Grand Admiral Thrawn. Maybe this means he might make an appearance in the new films, which would be a great choice as he is not a typical Empirical villain. This guy is smart, calm and calculated and he can wait you out till you make a mistake. If done right he will be quite the formidable foe for the crew and I can't wait to see how this unfolds. I'm hoping that they don't just stop with Thrawn and we maybe get to see some of the other really popular canon- non-canon characters in the future. Mara Jade your solo shot awaits you!

Season 3 aires on Disney XD this fall.