Ahsoka: Lars Mikkelsen to Reprise His Star Wars Rebels Character Grand Admiral Thrawn in Live-Action

It's official: after months of speculation, and a questionable denial from the man himself, Lars Mikkelsen has been confirmed to be taking his role as Grand Admiral Thrawn from animation in Star Wars Rebels to live-action in Ahsoka.



LONDON, ENGLAND - APRIL 08: (L-R) Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Lars Mikkelsen, and Diana Lee Inosanto onstage during the Ahsoka panel at the Star Wars Celebration 2023 in London at ExCeL on April 08, 2023 in London, England. (Photo by Kate Green/Getty Images for Disney)



Moments ago at the Ahsoka series panel, it was revealed through an exclusive clip that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be portrayed by Mikkelsen, one of the few voice actors from one of the animated series to portray their same character in live-action. Shortly afterwards, Mikkelsen walked onstage to the sound of an eruption of applause.



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Unfortunately, the only look at Thrawn was exclusive to convention-goers, who saw a short clip of the character. As such, Lucasfilm has not released a promotional image of the villain as he was shown in the clip, so fans will just have to make do with the back of his head, glimpsed in the first public trailer for Ahsoka.



Thrawn in Lucasfilm’s Ahsoka, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.



Grand Admiral Thrawn was first created for a trilogy of novels by Timothy Zahn: Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. Given the absence of Star Wars media at the time that the books were released, fans gravitated to Thrawn, an alien military genius who managed to keep the New Republic on its toes despite operating at a tactical disadvantage. Thrawn also became a fan-favorite antagonist due to his cultured approach, having an innate ability to understand the weaknesses of a culture by means of analyzing their works of art.



Thrawn became one of the first major Legends character to be integrated into official canon in the Disney era through the third season of Star Wars Rebels, where he would remain one of the primary antagonists for the remainder of the series. Aside from Rebels, Thrawn came back into focus on the literary front with a new series of canonical novels written by Zahn, covering the character's story prior to and during the events of Rebels. At the panel, Filoni explained that Zahn was a consultant on Ahsoka for the character's depiction in live-action, wanting to ensure that the way the character was written in the show was consistent with his depiction in earlier media.



Star Wars: Ahsoka will be airing sometime in August 2023 exclusively on Disney Plus.



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