Han and Leia’s First (!) Wedding Attempt in the Expanded Universe Was Incredibly Weird

Now that we’ve talked about conception enough, let’s actually get weird! The story of Han and Leia’s marriage in the now-non-canonical Star Wars Expanded Universe is, like so many beloved things about the Expanded Universe, incredibly convoluted. Not only because they tried to get married twice, but because the first attempt ended so poorly that it would take another three years for Leia and Han to try and tie the knot again.

The timeline of the EU’s post-Return of the Jedi period is much more drawn out than the one we now have in current continuity—the battle between the newly formed New Republic and the Galactic Empire would not be over for several more years compared to this equivalent point in canon today—but nevertheless, Organa-Solo matrimony was on the cards in 5ABY. Instead of a private ceremony, Han and Leia planned on getting married in a larger event on Yavin IV, in the remnants of the great hall of the Massassi temple where the Rebel Alliance celebrated the destruction of the Death Star. Emphasis on planned. The final novel in the Jedi Prince series, Prophets of the Dark Side (first released in 1993) concludes with Leia walking down the aisle on Yavin IV, being given a vision of the future by the Force of her first children with Han, the twins Jacen and Jaina Solo. However, we never see the conclusion of that wedding—the Jedi Prince series was cancelled before the next book, which would’ve shown the wedding being attacked by Imperial forces. And of course, we know there’s another wedding in the EU, which we’ll get to soon enough. An accompanying tie-in article series on the official Star Wars website eventually clarified that this wedding was actually interrupted, and never went through. How?

Sit down: it was attacked by the brainwashed son of Palpatine. Named Triclops. Because he has a third eye in the back of his head. Oh, and did we mention that, kind of maybe sort of like Rey’s own father in The Rise of Skywalker, Triclops was a clone engineered through Palpatine’s manipulation of the Force? We’re not even going to get into one of the major protagonists in the Jedi Prince books being Triclops’ son… Ken! Anyway, we’re getting far off the beaten track: suffice to say, Han and Leia’s wedding here apparently never happened, and so it’s time to get weirder.