Heir to the Empire, the novel kick-started an entire trilogy of books starring Thrawn and a greater Expanded Universe that have since become non-canonical Legends under the Disney Era. However, it's recently been confirmed that Thrawn's success was crucial to the prequel trilogy being made by Lucasfilm.

While speaking during a at Rogue Comic Con in Medford, Oregon, Timothy Zahn shared some insights about his work on the Heir to the Empire trilogy and Thrawn's full impact on the Star Wars franchise at large. As covered via a thread from X/Twitter @flamryn, Zahn has claimed it was Heir to the Empire's impressive sales that helped George Lucas decide to move forward on production of the Star Wars prequel trilogy, beginning with The Phantom Menace in 1999:

While Zahn continued to reveal more interesting insights about Thrawn, including the character's recent live-action debut in 2023's Ahsoka, this is certainly one of the most surprising and fascinating: the stories that first introduced the Grand iral helped usher in the next generation of Star Wars movies.

Timothy Zahn Is Right, The Star Wars Franchise Was Dead Before Thrawn

Heir to the Empire Revitalized Interest in The Galaxy Far, Far Away

Following the release of Return of the Jedi in 1983, there was effectively a big gap of time (around 8 years) where hardly any new or notable Star Wars media was being released. Even toys were starting to be phased out, with many believing that Star Wars was going to be nothing more than a fond memory of the past. However, the turning point was indeed the release of 1991's Heir to the Empire and the rest of the Thrawn trilogy.

The Thrawn books effectively kicked off the greater Expanded Universe, an explosion of new Star Wars books, comics, toys, and more. As such, the result was a complete revitalization of interest and engagement in the Star Wars franchise. With that in mind, it's incredibly easy to believe Zahn's new comments that the success of the Thrawn trilogy directly motivated Lucas to go ahead and make the prequels.

Thrawn Is Still Making A Major Impact On Canon Today

Brought Back To Canon As A Major Live-Action Villain In The Modern Era

Like most of the Expanded Universe following Disney's purchase of the Star Wars IP in 2012, Grand iral Thrawn initially went the way of non-canonical Legends. However, Thrawn was brought back in 2016 with Star Wars Rebels season 3, becoming an ongoing antagonist to the series' heroes through the series finale. Likewise, Thrawn has since made his live-action debut in 2023's Ahsoka.

Heading into projects like Ahsoka season 2 and Dave Filoni's Star Wars movie, Grand iral Thrawn is now positioned to once again become a major threat to the New Republic, just like when he was first introduced in the early 90s with his Legends trilogy. As such, it's pretty cool to see just how influential Thrawn still is in the modern Star Wars era, especially after the success of his novels helped the entire franchise continue when it easily could have faded following the conclusion of the original trilogy.

Source: X/Twitter