Ahsoka is about to arrive. The new and highly anticipated Star Wars series will arrive on Disney Plus shortly, and it intends to do so as the long-awaited blockbuster success that we’ve been waiting for for years. But for Ahsoka to have a great storyline, a significant part of the fiction will depend on its villain, because, as is the case with Batman or Spider-Man, a great hero is nothing without a worthy adversary.
Over the years, as we’ve seen in The Clone Wars and Rebels, Ahsoka has faced enemies on the level of Darth Vader, her original mentor. But it’s another individual who has shaped her future and whom we’ll certainly see in the series: Grand Admiral Thrawn. This character is a heralded villain, as beyond seeing him in the animated series, he was announced in the latest season of The Mandalorian. But why is he so dangerous and feared in the galaxy?
Discovering Grand Admiral Thrawn
Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most iconic characters in Star Wars, and although he hadn’t appeared in live action until now, he will finally do so in Ahsoka. He is a skilled strategist and military leader of the chiss species, known for his cunning and superior tactical abilities, as well as his relentless determination to achieve victory in any circumstance and at any cost.
Thrawn first appeared in the novel “Heir to the Empire” by Timothy Zahn, published in 1991 as the first installment of the Thrawn trilogy. Since then, the character has appeared in numerous Star Wars novels and comics, as well as in the Disney animated series “Star Wars Rebels.”
In Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn is the main antagonist of the third and fourth seasons of the series. He is portrayed as an impeccable strategist and a formidable foe for the rebels. With his brilliant mind and deep knowledge of the culture and history of his enemies, Thrawn becomes a fearsome force that the rebels struggle to contend with.
Thrawn’s portrayal in Star Wars Rebels remains faithful to the character from the novels but benefits from the visual and auditory aspects of the animated series. The voice of Lars Mikkelsen, who lends his voice to Thrawn, is impressive and perfectly conveys the character’s determination and cunning.
Now, Mikkelsen will portray the character beyond just his voice. He will be the one to bring him to life in live action, and we’ll see him facing off in person against the former Jedi. But what’s most striking about Thrawn is that he can not only appear in Ahsoka, but he’s poised to be the central villain in the entire narrative being crafted by Dave Filoni through the series he oversees: The Mandalorian, Ahsoka, and The Book of Boba Fett.
As we know, the plan from Disney Plus is to conclude the events of these series with a kind of large-scale crossover where the main characters from all of them come together to defeat a final enemy, which could even lead to its own movie. This ultimate adversary, if everything goes as planned, would be Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the last remnants of the Empire remaining after the rise of the Republic.
Thrawn has everything it takes to become a worthy adversary: he’s intelligent, disciplined, and has fewer scruples than even Darth Sidious himself. He’s not an all-powerful villain with physical might to contend with, but rather he fights through intellect, and this is something we haven’t seen much of in Star Wars. It could make the difference between just another series in the franchise and something truly epic that will always be remembered.
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