Disney decided against using George Lucas' outline for the Star Wars sequel trilogy, and, seven years on from The Rise of Skywalker's release, that movie, The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi remain hugely divisive among fans.
While very little has been revealed about the filmmaker's vision, we know he wasn't planning to adapt the first sequel to his original movies, author Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy (a series of novels beginning in 1991, and part of the franchise's Expanded Universe).
Those introduced many new characters and concepts to Star Wars, including two firm fan-favourites: Grand Admiral Thrawn and Mara Jade. Disney quickly scrapped the EU for the sake of simplicity, but Thrawn finally made his "official" debut in Star Wars Rebels.
He's since been brought to a live-action setting by Dave Filoni in Ahsoka, but there's so far been nothing to suggest we'll see the villain match wits with Luke Skywalker or form an alliance with the insane Dark Jedi, Joruus C'baoth. Many fans believe Baylan Skoll is a loose adaptation of the latter.
As for Mara, she remains M.I.A., and based on what we saw in The Last Jedi, there's no reason to suspect she ever married Luke and gave birth to a son named Ben. That's what happened with her publishing counterpart, who, before becoming a Jedi Master, was the Emperor's Hand.
There have been rumours about Lucasfilm having plans for Mara, but for now, the character is seemingly off-limits to creatives. Appearing at MEGACON (via SFFGazette.com), Star Wars: Bloodline author Claudia Gray said, "A couple of times I was like, 'Really? Really, no Mara Jade?' And they were like, '[Stern voice] Nope.'"
Zahn was on hand to say that he'd also asked about utilising Mara in new material, only to be told no. This suggests that either the studio has no interest in reviving the character or there are tentative plans to reimagine her for the Star Wars franchise in a future movie or TV show.
Undercover in Jabba the Hutt's palace during the events of Return of the Jedi, Mara Jade didn't make it onto the sail barge in time and failed to assassinate Luke Skywalker.
Palpatine's loyal soldier subsequently blamed him both for Palpatine's defeat and the fact that she lost everything, prompting her to hunt Luke down years later.
Despite initially setting out to kill the Jedi, Mara ultimately realises that Palpatine planted the idea in her head at the moment of his death and embraces the idea of being a Jedi too...after ridding herself of the Sith's voice by dealing the killing blow to Luuke, a clone of Luke created by C'baoth (it's a long story).
Mara is a fantastic character, and one fans have dreamed of seeing in live-action for decades. New Lucasfilm President Dave Filoni making that a reality would make a lot of people very happy. Plus, the studio could do with a win after delivering so many divisive movies and TV shows in recent years.
A Mara Jade TV series was first rumoured to be in the works early last year, so stay tuned for updates as we have them.