With a potential loose adaptation of Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy becoming a film in the current Star Wars canon, one detail from a 2021 comic may set up a surprise antagonist. Before it was rebranded as Legends, the Star Wars Expanded Universe was the official Star Wars canon, and while its materials are almost as old as the saga films themselves, Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy breathed new life into the Legends continuity in the early 1990s. The trilogy's final installment, The Last Command, introduces a strange, yet fitting antagonist who may debut in the post-2014 canon continuity, and in live-action, no less.
Dave Filoni's upcoming (and for now, untitled) Star Wars film appears more and more to be a loose adaptation of the Thrawn Trilogy, with its title rumored to be Heir to the Empire, sharing its name with Zahn's first installment. The current canon's many fundamental differences from the Legends timeline prevent Filoni's film from being a faithful adaptation of the novels, but Filoni himself has stated that the film will conclude the storylines of his live-action TV shows. Despite this, issue 11 of 2020's Darth Vader comics, by Greg Pak and Raffaele Ienco, has set up the live-action and post-2014 canon debut of none other than Luuke Skywalker.
In the Darth Vader comic issue, Vader visits Palpatine's secret fortress on Exegol and discovers his master's various cloning experiments. Darth Vader discovers potential new bodies for Palpatine to inhabit (with one presumably becoming First Order's Supreme Leader Snoke) and possible replacements for him, should he unsuccessfully betray his master. Fascinatingly, Vader also finds a preserved severed hand, which many readers assume is Luke Skywalker's, setting the stage for a reimagined version of Luuke Skywalker, who was cloned from Luke's severed hand in the Thrawn Trilogy.
The Thrawn Trilogy's final, climactic, lightsaber duel is not fought between Luke Skywalker and Joruus C'baoth, but rather between Luke and the latter's bodyguard, Luuke Skywalker. C'baoth created Luuke using a Spaarti cloning cylinder (a quicker, yet far less efficient form of cloning than Kaminoan technology), growing Luuke within a month. Luuke has no thoughts or will of his own and simply follows the direction of Joruus C'baoth, using offensive lightsaber strikes and Force abilities that he learned from his creator (and possibly strengthened through telepathy). C'baoth used Luuke Skywalker as a pawn to fight the real Luke, either killing the latter or making him succumb to the dark side.
Luuke Skywalker is often dismissed as one of the goofier elements of the Star Wars Legends continuity due to his out-of-left-field introduction and the two U's in his name, but he is a thematically relevant element of the Thrawn Trilogy. Luuke represents Joruus C'baoth's obsession with finding an apprentice and his disregard for the autonomy of others. He lacks free will and is a disturbing doppelgänger to the more experienced Luke. Equally important is Mara Jade's killing of Luuke, which allows her to follow Emperor Palpatine's Force-induced suggestion to kill Luke Skywalker without her actually killing him, completing her redemption arc in the Star Wars Legends continuity.