The first episodes of Ahsokathe new Disney Plus show starring Rosario Dawson, has a big name dominating the proceedings: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Fans knew he would be involved with the series for a while – news of his return was announced in Ahsoka updates, as well as a teaser in The Mandalorian season 2. But in-universe, his return is not guaranteed; as Ahsoka tells Hera (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), she mostly heard whispers that he had survived. She hopes he did, if only because it bodes well for her chances of finding Ezra and possibly being able to kill Thrawn.
In case you’re unfamiliar with the broader Star Wars canon, non-film, here’s a brief introduction to Thrawn and everything you need to know about one of Star Wars’ most beloved villains.
(Ed. note: This article contains spoilers for The Mandalorian season 2 episode 5, Star Wars: Rebels, and the Thrawn novels.)
Grand Admiral Thrawn is an Imperial officer who was first introduced to the Star Wars universe in Timothy Zahn’s 1991 novel. Heir to the Empire. The novel and its two sequels, later known as the Thrawn trilogy, took place shortly after. Return of the Jedi. Zahn’s books told readers what happened to the Galactic Empire in the years after the deaths of Darth Vader and Emperor Palpatine – sort of. Turns out Thrawn happened.
While this original trilogy of novels was decanonized when Disney purchased the Star Wars franchise, Thrawn was reintroduced in Star Wars: Rebels, and given a series of new novels also written by Zahn. These new novels reintroduce the blue-skinned Chiss as a brilliant tactician and a worthy and more strategically adept successor to Emperor Palpatine.
Rather than covering the same ground as his original trilogy, which took place in a time period that is now covered by Disney’s sequel trilogy, Zahn’s later Thrawn books tell the story of how Thrawn came to join the Empire and his rise dazzling in its ranks.
Image: Lucasfilm
Although Thrawn’s Imperial career is impressive, it is the period following his cadet days that is most significant for this latter mention in The Mandalorian. The first official post-Disney reintroduction of Thrawn has taken place Star Wars: Rebelswhere he became one of the main antagonists of the series during its final two seasons, attempting to quell the rebellion in its infancy.
In the series finale, Thrawn faces Rebels protagonist Ezra Bridger. While aboard Thrawn’s command ship, the Chimaera, Ezra surprises Thrawn by attacking his fleet of ships with purr, giant tentacled creatures capable of hyperspace travel. In the final moments of the show, Thrawn and Bridger are both aboard the Chimaera when the purrgil carries it into deep space. Although apparently they both survived the journey, because the next time we heard of Thrawn was in The Mandalorian.
In a season 2 episode “The Jedi”, Mando and the Child (we learn that his real name is Grogu in the same episode), head to the planet Corvus and meet Ahsoka. The last time she appeared in a Star Wars series before this one was at the end of Rebelsas she and Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren went in search of Ezra following his Purrgil-assisted hyperspace jump.
Image: Lucasfilm
The Mandalorian showed us that this quest was still ongoing: Ahsoka was looking for someone named Morgan Elsbeth, who had been taken under the wing of Thrawn himself. Elsbeth was apparently an important figure in building the Imperial Navy fleet during the era of the Galactic Empire, which would certainly explain why Thrawn liked her. Ahsoka and Elsbeth face off at the end of the episode, and when Ahsoka wins, her only question was where Grand Admiral Thrawn is. But we won’t get any resolution to this subplot until Ahsoka.
(Ed. note: The remainder of this article contains spoilers for Ahsoka.)
Image: Lucasfilm
Ahsoka resumes some time later The Mandalorian, with Elsbeth on the run and Ahsoka hot on her trail. After Elsbeth and her allies, and Ahsoka, and her allies, engage in struggles over an ancient map sphere of Dathomir, both sides cross the void between galaxies and travel to the witches’ home planet of Dathomir. There they find Thrawn, who not only survived the journey, but kept an iron grip on his deteriorating star destroyer and his troops.
Aside from staying alive, what has the Grand Admiral done since we last saw him? This remains unclear. Certainly, its storm troopers are no longer dressed in standard fashion, their armor showing not only wear but also unique embellishments, led by Enoch, a trooper who wears a modified helmet with a gold visor in the mold of ‘a face. What we can say is that Thrawn’s plan is to return to his home galaxy – right after a bunch of “freighter” from the “catacombs” is transferred to Elsbeth’s ship. Interesting.
No matter what Thrawn is involved in, there’s no doubt that it’s important. Considering the post-Return of the Jedi period of time Ahsokait seems possible that if Thrawn could have been a key figure in the Empire’s transition to the First Order. Ahsoka has two more episodes, and potentially even a movie, to tell this part of the story.