If The Rise of Skywalker only flashed Leia's lightsaber years and then cut away, Madeleine Roux's Star Wars: Legacy is the bridge that sits still on the choice. The Random House Worlds novel is out July 28, 2026. It slots between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker, sends Rey and Leia to Tython to repair the Skywalker lightsaber's broken kyber, and spends real pages on the vision that made Leia quit Jedi training with Luke.
Soft spoiler wall for Legacy and sequel-trilogy backstory below.
What the film already told you
On Endor, Luke told Leia she would learn the Force in time. Decades later she is General Organa, not a Jedi Master, even as The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker show she can still move through the Force. The Rise of Skywalker flashback puts a younger Luke training his sister on Ajan Kloss, then explains she left after sensing that Ben Solo's death waited at the end of her Jedi path. That was enough for a trailer beat. It was not enough for the why-behind-the-why.
What Legacy adds on Tython
Penguin Random House's synopsis puts the quest cleanly: Rey needs a forge and a mentor after Luke is gone; Leia tries to teach what Luke once taught her; both are haunted by Kylo Ren and unfinished choices. On Tython, the Force is loud. Leia keeps dreaming she is back on the Raddus, fighting the First Order, until the dream escalates into tearing a Star Destroyer apart with her mind while a young Ben asks if she will teach him to do the same.
That recurring nightmare reads as the fuller shape of the Ajan Kloss vision. In Legacy, Leia frames the fear to Luke as more than one boy's death. The takeaway in the text is that staying on the Jedi path risks becoming the kind of Force power that turns her family into another war machine. She tells Luke, in substance, that if she stays and becomes a Jedi, everyone she cares about will be destroyed. Luke's answer lands soft and human:
You chose Han. You chose happiness. There's nothing wrong with that.
She returns to building the New Republic instead of finishing the Order. The book also lets Luke float an alternate timeline: if Leia had stayed, she and Luke might have trained Ben together and kept him closer to the light, while Rey becomes the First Order's weapon. His point is not gotcha fanfic. It is that no path saves everyone, so the useful choice is showing up for Rey in the present.
Confirmed vs not confirmed
| Item | Status |
|---|---|
| Legacy by Madeleine Roux, July 28, 2026, Rey + Leia between Episodes VIII and IX | Confirmed (Random House Worlds) |
| Tython temple / forge quest to repair Rey's saber | Confirmed (official synopsis) |
| Rise of Skywalker: Leia left training after a vision tied to Ben | Confirmed (film) |
| Legacy expands that vision with Raddus / Star Destroyer dreams and young Ben | In the novel |
| Palpatine deliberately sent the dark vision | Speculation, not stated as fact in the film |
Where this sits in the publishing map
Beth Revis's Star Wars: Twin Crossroads (2027), announced on StarWars.com, goes back to Luke training Leia on Ajan Kloss after Return of the Jedi. Revis has said reading Legacy helped her figure out how Luke approached Leia, because she could see how Leia later approached Rey. Read Legacy first if you want the sequel-era mentor story now; keep Twin Crossroads on the calendar for the twins' early split.
Where to start
Grab Star Wars: Legacy in hardcover, ebook, or the Saskia Maarleveld audiobook via Random House Worlds. Follow the Star Wars hub and the books feed when Twin Crossroads gets a firmer date.