As ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Premieres Its Third Season, Grand Admiral Thrawn Returns


Star Wars Rebels, a piece of the saga that many fans now consider “required viewing,” debuts its third season this weekend, bringing back into canon one of the series’ most beloved, if oft underutilized, villains: Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Longtime fans of the Star Wars saga are beside themselves at the debut of Thrawn on Rebels, as Entertainment Weekly notes, largely because the blue-skinned Grand Admiral was the first major villain to appear in the expanded universe after the death of Darth Vader. Thrawn assumed the mantle of leadership from the remnants of the shattered Imperium in Timothy Zahn’s iconic Heir To The Empire trilogy, serving as the primary antagonist for what was, at the time, a long-awaited and groundbreaking continuation of the Star Wars trilogy.

Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni, who was just a child when Zahn’s trilogy debuted in 1991, noted that the event was “a huge deal,” long awaited by fans who had spent nearly a decade wondering what transpired after the destruction of the second Death Star.

“I would go to the bookstore and you’d see all the Star Trek books, tons of Star Trek books, and nothing Star Wars. Then all of a sudden this standee appeared! We waited for that book and we devoured it because we were so hungry for the continuation of the saga.”

Filoni has been working to reintroduce certain elements of the expanded universe into Disney’s new Star Wars canon after the company migrated it, in its entirety, to the Legends series, which is not recognized in the official timeline of the saga. Disney’s move was intended to clear the way for a fresh take on the future of Star Wars, heralded by the release of The Force Awakens, but a number of fan-favorite characters and novels were lost in the transition, with Thrawn among the most notable. Filoni’s effort to bring the Grand Admiral back into the series represents the most high-profile effort yet to do so.

Thrawn will be tasked with stamping out the nascent Rebellion in this season, as Geek notes, yet despite his status as a villain, he remains a compelling character. Filoni points out that, much like the antagonist of a James Bond movie, Thrawn displays a sophistication uncommon in most sci-fi villains. Compelled to study the artwork of a species he is engaged in battle with, Thrawn works to gain an understanding of his adversaries’ core tendencies, analyzing what weaknesses and strengths they possess in order to exploit them.

“He really stuck out because he was through and through an Imperial officer. He was not facing doubt, he didn’t have these abilities that make all the big arch villains up to that point arch. He wasn’t inept so much like Piett, he wasn’t playing politics like the rest of the Imperial officers, he was purely a military strategist.”

For the third season of Rebels, Filoni tapped House of Cards and Sherlock actor Lars Mikkelsen to voice the icy-tempered Thrawn, imbuing the character with intellect and insight. In addition to Mikkelsen’s enthusiasm for the part, he also possesses a family connection to the Star Wars universe, as his brother Mads portrays scientist Galen Erso in this winter’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Now that Thrawn has been returned to the canonical Star Wars saga, Lucasfilm plans to expand his story even further. Rebels will show the Grand Admiral at a previously unexplored time in his career, when Darth Vader reigned as the supreme Imperial taskmaster, second only to the Emperor. Meanwhile, Timothy Zahn has returned to his most iconic character to pen a new novel exploring Grand Admiral Thrawn’s history in the updated timeline, which will debut early next year, titled simply Thrawn.

[Featured Image By KAMiKAZOW/ Wikimedia Commons | Cropped and Resized | Public Domain]

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