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In 1991 Heir to the Empire was published, and it became an instant bestseller. The Timothy Zahn written novel reignited interest in Star Wars, spawning a renaissance for the franchise. At the time it was published, there was no indication that Lucasfilm would ever make any more movies after Return of the Jedi, making Heir to the Empire the closest thing fans would have until 2015’s The Force Awakens. 

The fans loved Zahn’s novel, but how did George Lucas feel about it? 

During a panel at Dragon Con 2024, Timothy Zahn shared an interesting story. “I learned a couple of years ago that in 1991 for Christmas, George was giving out copies of Heir to the Empire for the employees. So he couldn’t have hated it,” Zahn said.

“I did get to meet him [Lucas] very briefly in 1992 or 1993. I was down in San Francisco and I got to go up to Skywalker Ranch. He didn’t mention anything about the books. I talked about filmmaking a lot. It was very interesting. I was supposed to get two or three minutes between appointments, but I think we talked for about twenty minutes or so.”

While the novel didn’t come up during the conversation, Zahn is aware of some of the critiques Lucas had. “I never heard anything from George. I had heard later on from other sources that he didn’t like certain things about the book. He didn’t like Mara, didn’t like Ysalamiri and such.”

However, Zahn believes that if George didn’t like the book, he wouldn’t have given it out as a company Christmas gift.

“We’ll never know the answer to that, but they let me keep going, and Lucasfilm hired me for other books. So somebody there liked me, if not George, then somebody who had authority over the books.”

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