Star Wars authors explain the tricky bits of expanding canon romance

But how does an author expand on an established love story without angering the fandom? The sequel trilogy faced the wrath of passionate Han and Leia fans after The Force Awakens revealed that the couple had split up, and their relationship was on shaky ground. It was obvious they still loved each other, but that didn’t make their breakup popular. The movie did, however, highlight an unfortunate issue for a franchise with many different cooks in the kitchen: Every new addition will taste bad to some fans, even if it’s scrumptious to others.

With that in mind, it’s clear why Beth Revis felt some pressure about getting the chance to write the most iconic Star Wars couple of all time. Revis’ The Princess and the Scoundrel is a whirlwind 2022 romance novel following Han and Leia shortly after their wedding on Endor. The two embark on their honeymoon aboard the Halcyon Star Cruiser, but soon get caught up in yet another dangerous adventure across the stars.

“Han and Leia are the couple that the entire world knows,” Revis told Polygon via Zoom. “They know how they act, how they talk. If I got it wrong, everybody would know I got it wrong. I had to keep telling myself the famous Carrie Fisher quote of ‘Do it scared, but do it anyway.’ I do love those characters so much, and I really, really wanted to do them justice.”

To ensure she could capture the characters’ voices, Revis began reading Leia’s lines while asking her husband to read Han’s lines. As they bantered back and forth, she could identify what worked and sounded like the Han and Leia we all know and love, and what could be cut.

Revis isn’t the only author to take on the challenging task of exploring Star Wars’ well-known couples. In 2025’s The Mask of Fear, Alexander Freed elaborates on Mon Mothma’s relationship with her hedonistic husband Perrin Fertha, in a story set between Andor’s first and second seasons. And in 2014’s A New Dawn, John Jackson Miller wrote about the developing romance between two Star Wars: Rebels characters: Twi’lek pilot Hera Syndulla and Kanan Jarrus, a Jedi survivor of Order 66.

Freed says his trick for adding to an established romance (or pre-existing characters in general) is to understand those characters’ purpose and relationships and to explore new, interesting ways to respect audience expectations without directly pandering to them. For Mon and Perrin, he wanted to show a relationship that isn’t strictly healthy, but is still romantic and recognizable to readers.

“I enjoy getting deep into the flaws of characters who are trying their best, but falling into bad habits anyway,” Freed tells Polygon. “It’s something I return to a lot, and something that embodies [Mon and Perrin’s relationship] to a large degree. Perrin is not a monster. Mon is certainly not a monster, but they have found themselves in a situation where their relationship is not working, yet it is deeply carved into their lives. Neither of them really knows how to live without it.”

While Mon and Perrin’s back-and-forth barbs in Andor reveal a deeply complicated relationship, their tense marriage adds a layer of complexity that Freed found more engaging than a grand, sweeping romance.

“There’s a lot of really interesting emotional meat there. […] It was enjoyable to get to dive into that.” Freed says. “I became incredibly fond of Mon and Perrin while working on them. They were delightful to write.”

Image: Lucasfilm/Disney

While Revis and Freed both had extensive knowledge of the characters they were writing about when they began their novels, Miller’s time with Kanan and Hera was a stark contrast. A New Dawn was a prequel to the animated TV series Rebels, which didn’t debut until the book was already out. That meant Kanan, Hera, and their love story were first introduced through a novel.

Ahead of writing A New Dawn, Miller discussed the story with Rebels executive producers Greg Wiseman, Simon Kinberg, and Dave Filoni, who hashed out where Miller could and could not tread, using a story bible and ideas from Rebels that might be used in the future. A New Dawn’s premise was simple: Miller could write about how Kanan and Hera had met. The book would be set five years before Rebels, and would not include any other characters from the TV series. While there were many rules and limitations to be aware of, a big directive from Filoni was that the first meeting of these star-crossed lovers had to be fun.

“So I said, ‘Well, let’s have them meet three times,’” Miller says. “Let’s have him see her, and then he hears her, and then they collide in the story. Roger Ebert, the film critic, came up with a phrase: a ‘meet-cute,’ a cute moment in movies where characters meet in a funny or memorable way. Usually it’s not a love-at-first-sight thing, but it’s something that’s memorable, and it gets the story going.”

In spite of these limitations, Miller crafted a story that didn’t just appeal to Rebels’ fans and general audiences, but to Hera Syndulla herself.

“I remember talking to Vanessa Marshall, the voice of Hera — she had read the book, and she admired the thought I put into the character,” Miller says. “Then other folks said, ‘Wow, you really captured her voice.’ And I’m like, ‘I never heard the voice. I didn’t know what it was.’ We made the voice a thing in the book, but I’m glad the guidance I was given set them up to have a relationship you can see being consistent with what you have later on in [Rebels].”

Image: Lucasfilm

As Miller’s case proves, writing Star Wars novels isn’t just a matter of an author having an idea and some respect for the franchise. The people behind the scenes at Lucasfilm and Lucasfilm Publishing are also involved in bringing these characters and couples to life.

“There’s a lot of editing involved in Star Wars,” Revis says. “For my book, I was given a specific timeline: ‘Here’s the weeks we have shaved off where they could have this adventure. Here’s where we have a hole in the timeline where these two characters can be together and do things. So do whatever you want within that timeline.’”

Similarly, Freed began writing The Mask of Fear after Andor season 1 aired, but he had only limited details about season 2 and the progression of Mon and Perrin’s story.

“Everything that was getting written was getting read by Lucasfilm folks. So had I gone astray, it would have gotten caught.” Freed tells us. “The general vibe was like, ‘Yeah, play with this a bit, but don’t go ridiculously deep with it, either. This is largely going to be living within the TV show, so try to keep this to subplot level.’ And that was fine with me.”

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