The House of Cards star Lars Mikkelsen is once again set to reprise his role as one of the fan-favorite Star Wars villains ever, Grand Admiral Thrawn. First appearing in the 2016 animated series Star Wars: Rebels, the character quickly drew attention with his viciousness. Mikkelsen, who has been a part of the franchise since then as Thrawn’s voice actor, is finally making his live-action debut in the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka. After being announced at the Star Wars Celebration fan convention held in London, fans are losing their minds to see such an iconic character coming to life after so long.
The Star Wars franchise has maintained its relevance even years after its advent with many spin-offs and animated series to shed more light on the intergalactic lores, and in-between loose ends that were not able to come full circle during the run of the original nine episodes. As such, with the new hero Ahsoka, all set to take fans on a new adventure, fans of the franchise and Lars Mikkelsen both are eagerly waiting to see their favorite villain taking the reins again.
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Grand Admiral Thrawn’s first appearance in Star Wars
Author Timothy Zahn first added Grand Admiral Thrawn in a series of 1990s Star Wars novels that showcased the events that followed the 1983 release Return of Jedi. Portrayed as a ruthless, vicious, and cunning character, he drew fans from the start. With his ice-blue skin, crimson eyes, and the quest to destroy the New Republic by taking over the remains of the Imperial Fleet, the Grand Admiral of the Empire intrigued fans to no end and made them that much eager for his on-screen debut.
However, in 2012, with Disney taking over Lucasfilm, the character along with the novels were scrapped from the original series to make space for the upcoming sequels starting with The Force Awakens in 2015. The character fortunately did not die and made his screen debut the next year.
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Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn in the Star Wars franchise
Rebranded as the Star Wars Legends, the novels started coming into play with Dave Filoni’s 2016 Star Wars: Rebels animated series. The series kept most of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s backstory and biography intact, and with his iconic appearance and Lars Mikkelsen’s voice-over, the character left its mark on the audience.
However, the speculation of this character making its live-action debut started during The Mandalorian season 2. The episode that introduced Ahsoka Tano played by Rosario Dawson to the audience also gave a clue as to who is going to be the villain matching her. Ahsoka, one of the lead characters of Star Wars: Clone Wars, was seen asking others where she could find the Grand Admiral but was left with no satisfactory answer.
Now, with Ahsoka coming in with her own story, fans are eagerly waiting for the hero and villain to finally come to their heads and find out more about the events that happened between Return of the Jedi and A New Hope in this epic intergalactic tale. Lars Mikkelsen himself seemed quite excited to reprise his role as the live-action version when he joined the onstage panel at the Star Wars Celebration fan convention in London.
Ahsoka will be available on Disney+ but the release date is still unknown.
Source: Variety
