Star Wars Series ‘Ahsoka’ Casts Lars Mikkelsen as Fan Favorite Villain Grand Admiral Thrawn
variety.comStar Wars” villain on the upcoming Disney+ series “Ahsoka,” Lucasfilm announced on Saturday as part of the Star Wars Celebration fan convention in London.
Mikkelsen also joined the cast of “Ahsoka” onstage at the end of the panel. Thrawn was originally created by author Timothy Zahn as part of a series of Star Wars novels released in the 1990s that covered the events following 1983’s “Return of the Jedi.” In those books, Thrawn was a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral in the Empire who takes control of what’s left of the Imperial fleet and mounts a counter-offensive to take down the New Republic.
With his ice blue skin and crimson red eyes, Thrawn quickly became a favorite among hardcore Star Wars fans. But after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Zahn’s novels — and Thrawn’s role in them — were removed from Star Wars canon and rebranded as “Star Wars Legends,” in order to make room for the sequel film trilogy starting with 2015’s “The Force Awakens.” The character, however, didn’t die.
George Lucas protege Dave Filoni resurrected the character in 2016 for the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels,” maintaining a great deal of Thrawn’s biography and backstory.
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