Ahead of his visit to Couset at the end of the month with the Heritiers de la Force, Timothy Jahn Its guests this weekend Paris Fan Festival For two days of signing.
On the occasion of the upcoming release in French of the third novel in the Throne trilogy, L’Ascendance, lesser evil, Pocket Edition hosted a press meet with the author on Friday evening, to which we had the pleasure of being invited.
In an interview conducted by Lucille Galliot, who manages Pocket’s Star Wars collection, Thrawn’s father looks back on his career as a Star Wars writer spanning more than 30 years, his return to iconic characters and the world of Thrawn. The official universe after the takeover.
Thus in the late 70s and 80s, despite the publication of several books around the film, the Star Wars universe was still a virtual literary desert, and Timothy Jahn himself, already a writer and fan of the story, did not even imagine that one day he would write Star Wars.
But one fine day in 1989, his agent told him that Lucasfilm was considering him writing three novels after Return of the Jedi.
After an initial reaction of panic and questions about his ability to write a work that would not only tell the continuation of the adventures of the film’s heroes, but also hold the essence of the Star Wars spirit, he finally decided to take it on. Proposal, which is then a lifetime opportunity for that fan.
Licensee Bantam gave him three instructions: his books must be 3 to 5 years after the films, and he could only accept characters who did not die in the films. Apart from that, Jahan explained that he enjoyed a lot of freedom in creating his stories.
Two iconic characters emerged from these novels: Thrawn, of course, but also Mara Z.
For Thrawn, Timothy Jahn wanted a villain who is driven by loyalty, not driven by fear like the Emperor or Vader. But his inspiration also comes from Sherlock Holmes, with the difference that Thrawn is also a teacher of sorts. In this sense, like Pellaone and Vanto Watson, to continue the analogy with the detective.
As for Mara Jade, the writer wanted a romantic relationship between her and Luke from the start (even if Jahn’s books leave little room for romance because, by her own admission, her heroes are too busy shooting it). But it seemed to him that after his first trilogy of novels, it was still too early to formalize this relationship.
But in 1993, Bantam was again approached by Timothy Jahn, who wanted to commission him for the final installment in a series of 12 new Star Wars novels.
Jahn has two conditions: to write about a war between the New Republic and the Empire, and to formalize the romance between Mara and Luke. After Bantam’s rejection of this point, resulting in Jahn’s refusal to participate, the editor finally accepted and Jahn wrote (among other things) A vision of the futureReleased in 1998 without any other writer, but conscious, destroys the relationship between the two protagonists.
In 2012, as everyone knows, Disney bought Lucasfilm, and it was quickly decided that the Expanded Universe would henceforth be labeled “Legends”. New writers and writers are given a fresh blank page, and no one knows yet if Thrawn will return to Star Wars.
In 2016, Lucasfilm contacted Timothy Zhan, who showed him the visuals for the return of the throne in season 3 of the series Rebels, and offered to write the new novel.
Zahn explains that the “new” throne is no different from the original. It changes his environment and the people around him and therefore the reactions of his interlocutors, which are not necessarily the same. The era itself is separate in the Star Wars timeline, making it easier to reunite the character.
The structure imposed on the author is a bit rigid. His first novel in the Official Universe serves as a prequel to Thrawn’s appearance in the Rebels series, while the second takes place between seasons 3 and 4 and the third during the character’s absence from the series. Season 4 during the series. Thus, Zahn could write his story without creating inconsistencies with the series and without giving the Grand Admiral an unintended gift of ubiquity.
Following these three books, Thrawn was approached by his agent Timothy Zahn in 2019 on the sidelines of the Star Wars Celebration in Chicago to write a story about Thrawn’s Cheesy past. The writer is there but wondering if Lucasfilm will agree, without actually knowing, they already…
For this series, Jahn has a lot of freedom, allowing him to tell his hero’s story as he pleases. Especially in the past, he hasn’t always agreed with other writers’ choices to take on Thrawn.
At the conclusion, he mentions feeling the idea of seeing Thrawn take on the Rebels series, before being reassured by Dave Filoni (and Lars Mikkelsen, who lent him his voice in Rebels). (She soon features in the Ahsoka series).
He’s also very confident about what he and Jon Favreau will do with his character, and isn’t saying no to the idea of writing a new book, now that Chise’s return to live action is confirmed, after his disappearance in Rebels for several years.
That’s basically what emerged from the hour-long interview. Thanks again, from Lucile Galliot pocket and at Paris Fan Festival For this meeting!
Written by Molly
As a bonus, what awaits you are some photos Paris Fan Festival This weekend:
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