'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' Novel Opens With a Line About Luke Skywalker's Wife

While Luke Skywalker may have given up on the Jedi Order, it looks like he may have at least found [...]

While Luke Skywalker may have given up on the Jedi Order, it looks like he may have at least found love in his lifetime.

The expanded edition of the novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi releases next week, but the novel's first line has already appeared online. It's a line that offers a new revelation of Luke Skywalker's life after Return of the Jedi.

The line reads:

"Luke Skywalker stood in the cooling sand of Tatooine, his wife by his side."

First sentence of the TLJ novel. from r/StarWarsLeaks

His wife? Nothing in Star Wars: The Last Jedi indicated that Luke was ever married. Does the novel reveal something that the film left out?

It's a little hard to say. Author Jason Fry worked with writer/director Rian Johnson to include scenes from alternate versions of the film's script. If this prologue is based on a previous version of The Last Jedi's script, that brings up some questions about whether it fits into official canon.

It should also be noted that this line is offered here without any context. Rian Johnson, more than any other Star Wars director, was fond of using narrative tools like flashbacks and bending reality. The novel medium, as opposed to a movie, also allows the writer to more easily show the internal thoughts of the characters.

This is to say that this line, even this entire prologue, could be part of a dream sequence of some kind. It is possible that Luke, after becoming disillusioned with the Jedi way, daydreams about the life he could have had. This is the life that could have been if he hadn't let Old Ben Kenobi talk him into leaving Tatooine for a life of adventure and righting his father's wrongs.

In the old Star Wars Expanded Universe, which is no longer canon, Luke did find a wife. He married Mara Jade, who was an "Emperor's Hand," a special agent of Emperor Palpatine. Mara Jade had sworn to kill Luke to avenge the Emperor's death. This urge was reinforced by a telepathic suggestion placed in Mara Jade's mind by Palpatine. Luke helped Mara break the Emperor's hold and she turned her back on the Empire. Mara and Luke then fell in love, married, and had a child, Ben Skywalker.

Mara Jade was one of the more popular characters in the Star Wars Expanded Universe, but she has yet to make the jump to the new Star Wars canon.

The expanded edition novelization of Star Wars: The Last Jedi goes on sale March 6th (pre-orders are available now). The film comes to Blu-ray and DVD on March 27th. The saga continues in Star Wars: Episode IX, opening December 20, 2019. Star Wars returns to theaters in Solo: A Star Wars Story, opening May 25th.

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