Dave Filoni Talks Casting Grand Admiral Thrawn in AHSOKA & Teases Dash Rendar

The first trailer of Star Wars: Ahsoka dropped earlier today, e Star Wars fans had fun! There are so many great and exciting moments in the trailer, but one part that many fans are talking about right now is the tease for Grand Admiral Thrawn’s grand live-action debut!

We knew he’d be involved in the story, but seeing the ruthless villain teased in the trailer was awesome! I guess being in the Star Wars Celebration room when this trailer premiered was electric, and there’s no doubt fans went wild when Thrawn appeared. Yeah, it was just the back of his head, but still!

The series is set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka “follows former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) while investigating an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

Ahsoka and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) are in search of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the hope that he will lead them to find the lost Ezra Bridger, the young Jedi who disappeared with Thrawn many years ago. The series directly follows on from several threads by Star Wars Rebels.

Some fans think Thrawn might actually make his debut in an upcoming episode of The Mandalorian, but we’ll have to wait and see. The Mandalorian AND Ahsoka producer and director Dave Filoni he spoke to CB recently and chatted about the casting process for the live-action version of Thrawn. He said:

“It’s something I’ve done several times now, is have an animation character take the leap [to live-action]. All I can say is I asked [Lucasfilm president] Katia [Kennedy] on that, ‘How do you know when you’ve found the right person for the part?’ and she looked at me and said, ‘Dave, you just know.’ And she’s right. Every time I’ve leaned into that process and done a series of auditions, [and] there is always one person who stands out. What might be remarkable to people is that Jon and I don’t do this together, we do this separately. We like doing it because we like to see if we invent the same person. We have an amazing record of accuracy together, to be linked to the same person.

“What’s really significant is that these are characters, in many cases, in the animation that I’ve created, so I know them very well, but then I also like having Jon’s point of view, because he’s a person who has seen but doesn’t” I don’t know in detail, but he will know what I think is important about the character. When we put that together, I think we have a really good goal to, ‘Yeah, that’s the person,’ and go.”

Producer and director Rick Famuyiwa continued while dealing with the pressure to bring these iconic characters from animated shows to life in the live-action series. Ahsoka includes Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), was Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Chopper, Ezra (Eman Esfandi), zeb (Steve Blum), and more. He said:

“The show has had its fair share of big surprises in the past. What’s great now is that there’s a great group of people who have been story tellers in this world and, obviously, Dave Filoni predates what I did, Jon’s [Favreau] fact, and so the fact that characters that have existed since Dave’s creations and his storytelling are starting to find their way into live action, just makes organic sense. And we had Ahsoka as one of the first introductions like that, and definitely Dave is getting ready to prepare that show and they’re putting it together now, so, yeah, I think there’s going to be a lot of characters that have been on his brain and put himself at stake in the world of animation that will make its way into the world of live-action”.

With Thrawn being retired from Legends of Star Wars stories, some fans have wondered if anything else legends the characters could also be involved in these stories. Many fans would like to see the bounty hunter Dash Rendar from the video game Star Wars: Shadows of the Empireand when asked if the character could introduce himself, Filoni joked:

“I’d just say anything is possible. If I’d looked back over the years and said I’d be doing live-action, I’d have thought, ‘I don’t think that’s going to happen,’ and yet, here I am, standing on that stage today and looking to the left and seeing Sharmeen [Obaid-Chinoy] and looking right and seeing James [Mangold], that’s what’s special to me, and it’s a real thrill and it’s a real responsibility that I take seriously. It’s a great opportunity for myself and I hope to represent Star Wars and the fans well.”

The series will debut exclusively on Disney+ in August 2023. Filoni will also direct a live-action Star Wars film for Lucasfilm.