Could the Katana Fleet Return to Star Wars Canon?

Although the Katana Fleet at any point in its history across the Prequels or Post-Original-Trilogy era has yet to be canonized in current Star Wars continuity, the Imperial Remnant’s need for ships is a minor ongoing plot thread in what we’ve seen of the post Return of the Jedi storytelling that we have.

Unlike in the Expanded Universe, the New Republic of current canon has adopted a policy of breaking down captured Imperial vessels, rather than simply integrating them into its own forces. A need for more forces across the Remnant Military was established with the reveal of Moff Gideon’s Shadow Council in The Mandalorian’s third season—with Pellaeon, representing Thrawn’s interests to the Council, believing that Thrawn’s return would herald the resurgence of the Remnant’s military power. However, as we saw in Ahsoka, Thrawn’s return to the galaxy brought with it more ground forces than naval operations: just the heavily re-repaired Star Destroyer Chimera, and what remained of its TIE Fighter wings after its time exiled on Peridea, were all that he brought.

It’s possible then that we will simply see Thrawn make use of whatever Pellaeon and the Shadow Council already has in terms of capital ships—and have them simply explained as having been kept in hiding waiting for his return—whenever we get to see what Star Wars has planned for the brewing conflict between the New Republic and the Remnant. But there’s still plenty of opportunity for current continuity to introduce an idea like the Katana Fleet, a weapon that would turn Thrawn into an even greater threat than he already is, backed by the mysterious magicks of the Nightsisters of Dathomir, and his seemingly undead soldiers. Whether he needs the Katana Fleet to be such a threat, however, remains to be seen.