Star Wars fans may wonder if marriage is on the table for Luke Skywalker, but what does George Lucas have to say on the matter? For the first two decades of Star Wars’ existence, most people likely ᴀssumed that marriage wasn’t an issue for Jedi Knights. After all, Luke’s father was a Jedi, and Yoda told him the Force was strong in his family, so it made sense for there to be Jedi bloodlines.

The Star Wars Expanded Universe authors thought the same way, making Jedi marriages common in the ancient past and after Return of the Jedi. However, things took a sharp turn with the release of Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, which revealed that Jedi are forbidden to marry due to the Order’s restrictions on emotional attachment. That would seem to settle the matter, but Lucas gave another answer in 1997 that would suggest otherwise.

Lucas Doesn’t Actually Seem To Mind The Idea Of Luke Skywalker Marrying

He didn’t completely rule it out in a 1997 interview

Despite the rules Lucas would later establish in the Star Wars prequels, he wasn’t always against the idea of Luke getting married. In a 1997 interview with Youth TV, Lucas was asked about Luke marrying after Return of the Jedi:

Question: Will Luke Skywalker ever get married?

Lucas: Not in the next three, since he is not born (laugh)

Question: In the final trilogy?

Lucas: Humm, I don’t know….. I’m not sure which kind of characters will be in the sequels. Nothing definitive. We’ll have to wait and see.

This is an understandable answer, as Lucas was focused on finishing Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace at the time and wouldn’t have been thinking much about a sequel trilogy. It would be another couple of years before he started working on the script for Attack of the Clones, so Lucas may not have decided yet that non-attachment was a strict tenant of Jedi philosophy. Either way, Lucas at least seemed open to the idea at one time.

Of course, it’s worth noting that Lucas also made statements against Luke getting married in later years. By 2008, Lucas was no longer interested in making a sequel trilogy, giving some of his thoughts on the Expanded Universe in a Total Film interview:

And now there have been novels about the events after Episode VI, which isn’t at all what I would have done with it. The Star Wars story is really the tragedy of Darth Vader. That is the story. Once Vader dies, he doesn’t come back to life, the Emperor doesn’t get cloned and Luke doesn’t get married…

Then again, Lucas later decided to develop his own sequel treatments before selling Star Wars to Disney, so maybe he would have warmed back up to the idea.

Luke Skywalker Did Marry In The Old Star Wars Expanded Universe

He married Mara Jade and started a family with her

While Lucas may have gone back and forth on Luke getting married in a potential sequel trilogy, it did happen in the Star Wars books and comics. 1991’s Star Wars: Heir to the Empire by Timothy Zahn introduced Mara Jade, the former Emperor’s Hand, who blamed Luke for destroying her life and swore to kill him. However, the two were forced to work together to defeat a common enemy, turning them into allies and close friends.

PURCHASE STAR WARS: UNION

Zahn returned in 1997 to pen the “Hand of Thrawn” duology where Luke finally proposed to Mara. Luke and Mara married in the 1999 four-issue comic series Star Wars: Union, and they eventually had a son named Ben Skywalker. Even after the prequels established that Jedi could not marry, Luke made clear that he did not agree with this rule and would not enforce it, saying how he couldn’t imagine his life without Mara.

Lucas never considered the Expanded Universe part of his canon, but he would have had to approve Luke getting married. He also likely knew that most readers wouldn’t know that Star Wars had different levels of canon, so he could have turned down this storyline like he had some others. It’s interesting to see Lucas allow such a significant development for Luke, even though it’s not what he would have done.

Star Wars Canon Seems To Have Abandoned The Idea Of Jedi Marrying

There’s no sign of a Luke Skywalker marriage after Return of the Jedi

The Star Wars Expanded Universe was declared non-canon and rebranded as “Legends” in 2014, and the new Disney is stricter on Jedi not marrying. This admittedly keeps the timeline more consistent, as the EU stories where Jedi got married were written before Lucas wrote the Star Wars prequels. At the very least, it makes sense for the Jedi marriage rule to be maintained before the Jedi Purge.

There’s also no evidence of Luke getting married or even having a notable romantic interest after Return of the Jedi. Luke never says directly whether marriage is allowed in his new Jedi Order, and he gives seemingly conflicting comments at different points in the timeline. In the Star Wars: The Last Jedi novelization, Luke says he disagrees with the Jedi view on non-attachment, but his actions while running his Jedi Temple seem to align with traditional Jedi views.

Of course, Luke never refused to train Leia as a Jedi, even though she had already married and had a son. Perhaps Luke wasn’t as strict as the original Jedi Order, and the loss of his students likely changed his view on Jedi teachings. With Rey set to return in the New Jedi Order movie, maybe Jedi will be allowed to marry, regardless of whether Luke Skywalker or George Lucas would approve.

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  Luke Skywalker

  The son of Anakin Skywalker and Padmé Amidala, Luke was brought up on the desert planet Tatooine. Initially mentored by Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luke fired the fateful sH๏τ that destroyed the Death Star, and he became a rebel hero. Despite the fears of Obi-Wan and Yoda, Luke’s faith in his father was proved well-founded when Vader returned to the light. With the Emperor defeated, Luke dedicated himself to bringing back the Jedi; his first attempt ended in tragedy due to Palpatine’s manipulations, but Luke’s legacy lives on in Rey.

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  George Lucas

  Discover the latest news and filmography for George Lucas, known for Star Wars and Indiana Jones.