One of the more exciting reveals from New York Comic Con 2025 was the upcoming novel, Star Wars: Legacy written by New York Times best-selling author Madeleine Roux. The book, set between the events of The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, focuses on the the relationship of Leia and Rey at the start of their training journey. Starwars.com sat down with Roux to dive deeper into her first Star Wars novel (Roux previously wrote a short story in the From a Certain Point of View: A New Hope anthology) and why the character of Leia means so much to her.
Star Wars: Legacy will explore Leia and Rey’s complex dynamic in the months following the Battle of Crait as they seek to fix the broken Skywalker lightsaber and enter into a master/apprentice relationship. Roux had this to say about picking up the story at this moment:
“To pick-up with Rey at a moment of a lot of doubt and weakness and confusion was a lot of fun because you couldn’t ask for a messier setup… You need to get these two people to like each other and be almost like mother daughter or mentor and apprentice. But this is the mother of the guy who she just had an incredibly messy situation with. It’s really fraught. It’s really confusing. And just the thought of being with that person’s mother is pretty intense. There is a lot of uncertainty.
They’re not actually at a good place with each other at first, and that was such a great opportunity to really have both of them grow. Even though Leia is so close to the end of her journey in a lot of ways, we can still have this great moment of character development for her.”
Writing for Leia, a character introduced almost 50 years ago, can have its challenges. Roux said to help her find Leia’s voice she read Carrie Fisher’s books which were an essential part of her research:
“They’re almost intertwined, so it’s a huge responsibility and I take it incredibly seriously… I felt a deep, serious kinship with the character and with Carrie Fisher writing this.”
Of course, it doesn’t hurt to have a healthy obsession with the character from childhood. Many fans, myself included, can relate. She said:
“I’m such a Princess Leia freak. She’s a very formative character and then Carrie Fisher became kind of a personal idol for my whole life… I don’t have a lot of early childhood memories, but one of the ones I do have is being six or seven and standing in front of our television wearing out the VHS of The Empire Strikes Back. I was so obsessed with Leia and Han, I would just replay the moment when he gets frozen in carbonite and they confess their love to each other. My parents were like, ‘You can watch the rest of the movie, too.’”
The interview also mentioned her excitement with delving into Rey’s psyche to get a clearer picture of where her character’s mindset is in this part of the overall story. Roux said:
“It’s about getting to know Rey, specifically, a lot better and giving her more depth. What does she think about the Jedi? What does she think about leading them in a sense? What will that look like? What will that feel like?”
Roux seemed determined to fill in the backstory of the Leia and Rey relationship we see in The Rise of Skywalker. What obstacles will they have to overcome to help Rey find her potential? How knowledgeable of the ways of the Force is Leia given her unfinished training? How will Kylo Ren complicate their relationship?
“I try to treat these characters as real people and explore them in a way that feels like they’re not just always doing the most heroic thing at every possible moment. They have moments of weakness or cowardice. I don’t have this idea that Leia is perfectly fully formed, this sort of Buddha on the Mount dispensing priceless wisdom. I think she’d have a lot of insecurity, actually, about not being a trained Jedi and now having to become the mentor to this Jedi.”
Star Wars: Legacy is due to hit shelves on July 28th, 2026. Follow Star Wars News Net for more updates as we get closer.
Star Wars: Legacy by Madeleine Roux, coming July 28, 2026
Tom Seery is by day a mild mannered IT Engineer and by night an overachiever in the art of collecting hobbies. From the visual arts and animation to songwriting and flying planes, he is always on the lookout for his next adventure. His father took him to see Star Wars in an old theater in Brooklyn in the summer of 1977 and his life has never been the same. He lives in NYC with his wife, two kids and four cats.