When it comes to long-running franchises, a long list of characters — heroes and villains — comes to mind, in which the fans could easily determine who were the best and who did the worst.
Dave Filoni, who is set to have his next live-action Star Wars series, Ahsoka, soon, discussed what makes Grand Admiral Thrawn stand out from the rest of the previous villains.
“When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire, Thrawn became this very iconic villain, because he was different than anything we’d seen before,” Filoni said in a recent interview with Empire magazine.
When comparing Thrawn to previous Star Wars villains such as Darth Vader and other ‘lightsaber-wielding bad guys’, Filoni had nothing but high praises for Zahn in creating ‘somebody who could fight in a different way.’
The Ahsoka creator described Thrawn as a ‘Moriarty archetype’ wherein the Chiss leader always manages to ‘out-think’ and ‘out-strategize’ you.
Filoni added: “[Thrawn] is a critical player in this time period. We’re fortunate to have that character and fortunate to have [Lars Mikkelsen] playing him.”
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Grand Admiral Thrawn was first introduced in Star Wars: Rebels Season 3, and has been recently confirmed to return as the main antagonist in the live-action Ahsoka series.
The original voice actor Lars Mikkelsen is set to reprise his role as the blue-skinned military strategist in the live-action version, which Zahn, who created the villain, highly approved.
“I visualize the characters in terms of attitude, not so much in time as voice or appearance,” Zahn previously explained.
He also shared: “Lars Mikkelsen did a wonderful job with the voice. The actor is Danish. He doesn’t really have an accent, but he has a particular vocal cadence when he plays Thrawn, which gives him a little alien side. He’s the perfect cast.”
Meanwhile, you’ll get to see Lars Mikkelsen as the live-action Thrawn in Ahsoka, arriving this August on Disney+.
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