Lars Mikkelsen confirmed to be playing Grand Admiral Thrawn in STAR WARS: AHSOKA

The return of Grand Admiral Thrawn was teased in the recently released trailer for the new one Star Wars series Ahsoka, and it was an emotional moment for fans. Today, the actor playing Thrawn in the series was announced during Ahsoka’s panel at Star Wars Celebration!

Lars Mikkelsen (The Witcher, house of cards) will play the live-action version of the Star Wars villain. News of Mikkelsen’s casting was reported over two years ago, but today it was confirmed by Jon Favreau AND Dave Filoni. Fans were happy with the casting then and they’re happy with the casting now, as Mikkelsen voiced Thrawn in the animated series. What’s not to love about casting!?

When Mikkelsen appeared on stage at the event with the rest of the cast, when asked how it feels to return to Star Wars, he said: It’s wonderful. He spoke of his experience joining the project saying, “We met via Skype. At one point finishing that series, David asked me, ‘Have you ever been to Los Angeles?’ I said, ‘No, no/’ ‘We’ll make it happen,’ he said… I’ve never been on a set with so much passion, I have to say. People are so passionate about bringing this to life for you guys .”

The Mandalorian AND Ahsoka producer and director Dave Filoni recently spoke about the casting process of the live-action version of Thrawn saying:

“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 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.”

Surely he’s the right guy to play Thrawn! Thrawn was created by author Timothy Zahn as part of a series of Star Wars novels published in the 1990s that covered the events following 1983’s Return of the Jedi. Those stories are not known as “Star Wars Legends.” Thrawn was a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral of the Empire who takes control of what was left of the Imperial fleet and launches a counter-offensive to bring down the New Republic.

Thrawn quickly became a fan favorite character and was reintroduced to the Star Wars franchise in the 2016 animated series Star Wars Rebelsthat fans loved.

Filoni went on to credit Tim Zahn’s books for Thrawn, saying, “You’d walk past the bookstore in the mall and you’d see this standee and it’d say, ‘Heir to the Empire,’ and you wouldn’t believe it.” He later described Thrawn as “strategically brilliant. He doesn’t have the Force and it doesn’t matter. He will outwit you and trap you.”

It’s so exciting that Grand Admiral Thawn is making his live-action debut in Ahsoka! 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 before. The series directly follows on from several threads from the animated series Star Wars Rebels.

The series will debut exclusively on Disney+ in August 2023. Are you excited to hear that Lars Mikkelsen has been confirmed to play Thrawn!?

Just announced a #StarWarsCelebration:

Lars Mikkelsen joins the cast of @AhsokaOfficial as Grand Admiral Thrawn. #Ahsoka pic.twitter.com/XnpJzLzQVe

— Star Wars (@starwars) April 8, 2023

A remixed trailer featuring exclusive new footage just playing for Celebration audiences, featuring a first look at Lars Mikkelsen’s Thrawn, Sabine igniting a lightsaber and gliding on an Akira-style speeder, and a close encounter with a Purrgil #SWC2023 pic.twitter.com/SzqvimAmtF

— Total Movie (@total movie) April 8, 2023

Lars Mikkelson takes the stage at #StarWarsCelebration. #Ahsoka pic.twitter.com/AzZHjMWQrM

— Ahsoka (@ahsokaofficial) April 8, 2023