SPECULATION Live Action Thrawn

Seconding @Lazarus Dei here. It's probably going to be in the Ahsoka show.

I can definitely see that! Even before reading the books last year, I always had a slightly deeper connection to Thrawn than Boba Fett. I didn't feel like they did him justice in Rebels and reading the original Thrawn Trilogy only deepened that feeling. That aside, I definitely feel your annoyance at Mara Jade's neglect. It was a darn shame, and one that looks very hard to fix. (Not impossible, just very hard, especially since they decided to break up the only official couple in the OT.)

 

I second that feeling. The right actor with a great live-action director with the right lighting and special effects can create a really strong villian with this character. Thrawn can become for Star Wars what Thanos became for Marvel.

She's too good of a character to stay absent forever. My dream casting is Karen Gillan of Jumanji and GOTG fame.

 

I always felt that Thanos already has his Star Wars equivalent in Darth Vader (in the sense that Thanos elicited the same shock and fear from audiences with the Snap that Vader did with the "I am your father," as well as being a villain that was absolutely no joke when onscreen) but I'd definitely like to see Star Wars try!

Karen Gillian would kill the role! She's such an underrated actress despite her fame.
All of that said, Mara Jade's importance seems to be tied to Luke Skywalker. She started out as his bitter enemy, then became his ally, then apprentice, then lover, then wife and mother to his child. The ST stripped that family aspect away from Luke - he has no children, no love, no real community outside what we know will fail. To echo Kylo's sentiment about Rey's heritage in TLJ, Mara Jade has no real place in the story, not anymore. At most all I can see us getting is a nice little homage, such as Starkiller base (which to JJ was probably more of an homage to Luke Starkiller than Galen Marek "Starkiller")
Or maybe they'll introduce her as Ezra's love interest, or something like that, and keep her tied into the story but without her attachment to Luke. Who knows?

 

Thrawn served the Empire to save the Chiss from alien invasion.

 

Sabine Wren is my hope still for that role in Ezra's life.

 

Honestly, I'm the same. Although I wouldn't be surprised if LF didn't go that route, however. But where else would Mara Jade fit? What is her purpose outside of her connection to Luke and the Skywalkers? If she's built up from the ground with a different backstory and future, is she really even Mara Jade anymore?

 

No she is not, IMO. If Ahsoka brings back Talon Karrade or Jorj Car'das, maybe we get a Mara-like character, though I'm not getting my hopes up.

 

For what it's worth, I'd MUCH rather have Shira Brie as a live-action Luke's love-interest character, even without eventually getting Lumiya, than Mara Jade. Admittedly, I haven't read that many MJ-related books (Thrawn Trilogy as comcis and Hand of Thrawn duology being the major two series), but her character didn't interest me at all, but the Brie story was fantastic! Oh well, to each their own.

 

I think it's pretty much a given that he'll feature heavily in Ahsoka, though I suppose it's possible he might cameo before that.

Which is... weird. Like, I get that Thrawn works well as an almost Sherlock/Moriarty (depending on whether he's the protagonist or the antagonist) but as a villain I think he's best as a military tactician. I think he'd be much more interesting as an antagonist to Leia, Hera, Poe, Bo Katan... someone who actually commands troops. Like, I can't really imagine a fight between Ahsoka and Thrawn, for instance, even though he's a prodigious fighter for a non-Force sensitive.

He worked okay for thwarting the Scooby Gang in Rebels, but this feels different. I'm open to it, but I'm cautiously skeptical.

 

Lucasfilm has now published 6 Thrawn books in new canon and they've been among the best sellers. There's just no way they're going to completely ignore all the backstory and simply make him an evil villain to kill off. I'm sure he's be introduced as evil and we'll find out his true motives are for the "greater good." Really for Ahsoka to work they need to go to the unknown regions and explore that area. That would help escape the baggage of having to deal with the New Republic timeline.

 

Yeah, I think we're probably on the same page-ish. Like, wouldn't it be weird if Luke's nemesis in the entire OT was Tarkin, rather than Palpatine or Vader? It just... wouldn't work as well.

Or similarly, if Rey and Hux were enemies, and Poe and Kylo Ren were always matched up. I mean, you don't always have to match up archetypes, but sometimes it just works a lot better.

 

One of the comments I've heard both Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni say in the "making of" episodes and in interviews is the importance of 'respecting the characters' that fans have developed such an emotional investment in over the years. Obviously, the implication harkens back to TLJ's depiction of Luke Skywalker, but it's true of villains like Thrawn too.

The mere thought of a live action Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn brings chills.