Ashoka Tano’s new Disney Plus series is not far away and we now know who the villain will be: Thrawn. The infamous Imperial Admiral makes his first live action appearance in the series, and Lucasfilm announced at Star Wars Celebration that he will be played by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen – the original voice actor of Thrawn from the Star Wars animated series.
Joining Mikkelsen in the cast of series villains will be Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, the antagonist from the episode of The Mandalorian‘s second season where Rosario Dawson’s live-action Ahsoka was first introduced. Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno star as lightsaber-wielding bad guys named Baylon and Shin, but series creator Dave Filoni wasn’t willing to reveal much about these characters at the panel.
Mikkelsen has steadfastly kept his casting within Ahsoka secret, repeatedly deny to press that he had been approached to reprise his famous role. The convention audience was treated to an extended version of yesterday’s trailer, this time featuring Mikkelsen’s face in blue makeup as Thrawn, which was met with rapturous cheers.
It was also confirmed that David Tennant will return to his role in the animated series as the droid Huyang.
Ahsoka will follow the Togruta Jedi in the period after most of her animated appearances, around the same time we see her in The Mandalorian And Boba Fett’s book. Dawson is joined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as fan-favorite characters Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren. Another thing we do know is that Hayden Christensen will appear as Anakin in the series one way or another.
Filoni will serve as an executive producer and one of the writers for it Ahsokaand is joined in the director’s chair by Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel and returning Mandalorian helmer Rick Famuyiwa. The music comes from original animated series composer Kevin Kiner.