After the prequel film trilogy began in 1999, Zahn discovered his planet Coruscant was a major location. And the double-bladed lightsaber he helped introduce — it played a significant role. Several of his characters — including fan-favorite Mara Jade, wife of Luke Skywalker — later became Hasbro action figures. Zahn received no money from those sales. He said he didn't know Hasbro was making a Thrawn figure until he went to Celebration last month. In fact, a couple of years ago, after the decision was made to bring Thrawn into official "Star Wars" canon, Zahn was invited to the company's San Francisco headquarters and not told why: "Timothy sat down with Dave Filoni (creator of the popular 'Star Wars Rebels' TV series) and Kiri Hart (of the Lucasfilm Story Group), who loved (Thrawn) and were looking for a good villain," said Jennifer Heddle, executive editor of Lucasfilm Publishing. "They explained they were putting Thrawn into 'Rebels,' and (Zahn) was blown away. Then to make it better, they took him into a screening room and showed him early footage of Thrawn in the show."