Trivia / Thrawn: Alliances

• Refitted for Sequel: Back in his Star Wars Legends days, Timothy Zahn expressed interest in writing a novel featuring a team-up between a clone of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ben Skywalker. While Zahn never got the chance to write it, it seems that the idea was reworked here as it features Thrawn (albeit the real one) teaming up with a member of the Skywalker bloodline (Anakin Skywalker, who in Legends was Ben's grandfather).
• What Could Have Been:
  • A proposed title was Out of the Past.
  • The original concept of the story had Anakin Skywalker and Thrawn looking for Ahsoka Tano instead of Padmé Amidala, but Ahsoka was off-limits and couldn't even be referenced, so it was decided to use Padmé instead.
  • Timothy Zahn originally pitched the idea of Darth Vader leading the 501st Legion like in previous works, but the Lucasfilm Story Group suggested for him to create the First Legion instead, believing that Darth Vader would not want to be associated with a stormtrooper legion which was once commanded by Anakin Skywalker. In spite of this, the 501st are still associated with Vader in the New Canon, however.