By Chris Snellgrove
| Published
One of the things that we older Star Wars nerds can never stop talking about is how cool it was to be a fan in the ‘90s. Sure, we hadn’t had a new movie since 1983, but that didn’t matter because of the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
We had an entire galaxy of books, comics, and games taking place in our favorite galaxy, far, far away. Even better, all of it was (at the time) canonical, so each new piece of media added to this amazing sci-fi universe.
There were a few scattered books before it, like Alan Dean Foster’s Spinter of the Mind’s Eye, but the Star Wars EU officially kicked off with Heir to the Empire, the first in a trilogy of books by acclaimed author Timothy Zahn. This book introduced fan-favorite new characters like Mara Jade and Grand Admiral Thrawn, and this novel is generally considered one of the best bits of Star Wars literature ever made.
Sadly, Disney decanonized the EU and made so many wonky changes to the lore that adapting the book into a film or show is now impossible. Fortunately, that hasn’t kept fans from making their own fully animated, fully voiced adaptation of Heir to the Empire that you can now watch for free on YouTube.
Here it is…
There Is Another
What is Heir to the Empire about? Princess Leia is trying to hold the New Republic together in the face of a new threat: an Imperial Grand Admiral named Thrawn who has rallied the rest of the Empire under his command. Even worse, he has recruited an insane Dark Jedi to his cause. Whether the New Republic will prevail may depend entirely on Jedi hero Luke Skywalker, but he’s got his own problems. Namely, a mysterious woman named Mara Jade who used to work for the Emperor and is obsessed with his last command: killing Luke Skywalker, once and for all.Â
Disney decanonized the EU many years ago, and while they brought Grand Admiral Thrawn back, they’ve made too many changes to franchise lore to accurately adapt Heir to the Empire into a movie or TV show. Fortunately, that didn’t keep a group of dedicated fans from doing it themselves. Recently, user DarthAngelus uploaded an ambitious adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s famous novel to YouTube. The entire thing is fully computer-animated and features a complete voice cast. Even better, the whole thing is clanker-free: the entire movie was made without using AI.
A Shockingly Good Fan Film
As a super-fan of Heir to the Empire, I was shocked at how great this fan film is. The animation is very smooth, and the movie does a great job of adapting everything from Luke Skywalker’s battle with a small army of Stormtroopers to the inevitable major space battle climax. Considering these events are almost certainly never going to be adapted by Disney, it’s awesome that fans took the time to bring such a great story to startling life. The fact that they did so without AI is just the cherry on top of a particularly tasty sundae.
Now, this fan film obviously isn’t perfect. Some of the voice actors do a better job than others, and some of the character designs are more than a bit unconventional for both mainstream Star Wars characters and those introduced in Heir to the Empire. But the good far, far outweighs the bad: most designs are great, the animation is smooth, and the acting is (quite frankly) far better than you’d expect from a fan film. Throw in the fact that you can watch it completely for free, and there’s basically no reason Star Wars fans shouldn’t check out this ambitious production.
You’re just one click away from watching Heir to the Empire for free on YouTube. With any luck, enough people will check out this amazing fan film that it will encourage DarthAngelus and other creators to make more of their own movies and even shows. Collectively, the fandom might be able to do what Disney has had trouble doing for over a decade: creating good Star Wars content!
