Back in October, I was able to get reliable information that said Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, brother of Mads Mikkelsen, was indeed set to reprise the role of Grand Admiral Thrawn in live-action for Dave Filoni’s “Star Wars” series, “Ahsoka.” And today during the show’s panel at Star Wars Celebration in London the studio made it official by having Mikkelsen appear on stage (see below).
Mikkelsen, of course, voiced the character originally for the animated series “Star Wars: Rebels” and joins Katee Sackhoff‘s Bo-Katan as one of the handful of animation actors able to make the transition to live-action. This comes as the series recently got an impressive first-look trailer yesterday during the Lucasfilm panel that teased the back of Thrawn’s head. The villainous Imperial character was first introduced into the Expanded Universe/Legends novels and wasn’t officially brought into canon until ‘Rebels.’ Being an alien from the “Star Wars” species Chiss, Thrawn has blue skin with red eyes making him very distinct from other baddies connected to the Empire.
Lucasfilm Lao revealed as well that “Doctor Who” actor David Tennant will have a role voicing the live-action version of droid, Huyang. Joining a cast that includes Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera, Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati, Genevieve O’Reilly as Mon Mothma, Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan, and Hayden Christensen returning as Anakin Skywalker (potentially in flashbacks to his time as Ahsoka’s Jedi Master).
Lucasfilm named the directing team too which consists of Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, and Rick Famuyiwa.
Filoni is set to direct his own feature film set in “The Mandalorian” timeline. That setting is being referred to by Lucasfilm as The New Republic. Although, it’s unclear what that final title of the film will be and what characters will be appearing in it. Hopefully, Mikkelsen’s Thrawn survives the “Ahsoka” series to potentially become the main villain of the spinoff film.
“Ahsoka” is aiming to begin streaming on Disney+ sometime in August. We’ll have to wait a little longer before they announce an official date for that.
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