Star Wars: Darth Vader to Appear in ‘Thrawn: Alliances’ Novel

One of the most popular characters from a series of Star Wars books from the early ’90s, Grand Admiral Thrawn, has been given a new life thanks to multiple appearances in the saga’s new canon. Announced at New York Comic Con this weekend, original Thrawn writer Timothy Zahn created another story for the character, with the novel Thrawn: Alliances slated for release next year, which will also feature Darth Vader.

During the Lucasfilm publishing panel, Zahn, who wrote the original Thrawn books in addition to this year’s Thrawn novel, confessed, “I believe the title is going to be Alliances. But the really difficult part about something like this is, once you have done Thrawn in a book, where do you go from here? How do you up the game, what can you do to make it even better?”

At this point, an image of Darth Vader was projected to uproarious applause.

“And just to make it clear, I’m not writing this book. I turned it in two and a half weeks ago,” Zahn confirmed to the audience.

Interestingly, Thrawn had a run-in with Anakin Skywalker already in the first Thrawn novel, so it will be interesting to see the two characters reunite.

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, the announcement came with exciting and disappointing news. The partnership revealed that there would be new films and TV series, but also came with the caveat that the events of all books and comics that had previously been released were no longer part of the official canon. Devout Thrawn fans were disappointed that his trilogy of books would be forgotten.

Thrawn returned to become an official part of the new canon with his appearances in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, exciting fans of the character while also introducing a whole new audience to his terror. He quickly became a fan-favorite and is expected to play a pivotal role in the upcoming final season of the series.

If you can’t get enough of the character, the Thrawn novel will also be getting a comic book adaptation courtesy of Marvel, slated for release next year.

Jody Houser will be adapting Zahn’s novel, previously having adapted Rogue One: A Star Wars Story for Marvel, while Luke Ross will illustrate the series, having previously provided art for Captain America and Spider-Man.

Star Wars Rebels premieres Monday, October 16 at 12:30 am on Disney XD.