Thrawn's history: how Zahn's Grand Admiral reached live action

Thrawn was set up as the new big bad of the Star Wars universe when The Mandalorian season 3 pivoted toward Ahsoka, with all of these storylines headed toward their own crossover film directed by Dave Filoni. My case is simple. Thrawn is the smartest tactician in the Star Wars universe, and we need him to expose how dumb everyone else is, so the heroes can prove their heroism, wise up, and truly earn the affection we feel for them.

In live action, Thrawn was being played by Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced the character in Star Wars Rebels and is the brother of Mads Mikkelsen, the actor who played Galen Erso. The character was last seen in Rebels aboard his Star Destroyer, the Chimera, disappearing into hyperspace with Ezra Bridger, carried off by a group of purrgil, the hyperspace whales. Don't get me wrong, I love these softies, but they've been getting off easy. I think Filoni knows it, and he was about to hit everyone with "the fist of a Chiss."

Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire introduced Thrawn in 1991

Thrawn was first introduced in 1991 in Timothy Zahn's novel Heir to the Empire, the first book of Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy. This was an important time for Star Wars fandom. It came eight years after Return of the Jedi and eight years before The Phantom Menace, creating the perfect void for a new face to claim the throne of the fandom. Thrawn activated the popularity of Expanded Universe lore in a way nothing else had before.

In these books, Thrawn was introduced as a genius naval commander for the Empire, a Sherlock Holmes figure, with his captain Pellaeon as his Watson. Pellaeon later showed up in The Mandalorian chapter 23, played by Xander Berkeley. In the novels, Thrawn outmaneuvered the New Republic in the years after Return of the Jedi and was a thorn in the side of Admiral Ackbar, nearly killing him.

Thrawn was finally assassinated by a bodyguard in the last of the three books, The Last Command. In Legends and in canon, Thrawn is never defeated by being outwitted or outstrategized. He falls only to treachery or unforeseen acts of God, like hyperspace whales.

Star Wars Rebels brought Thrawn back into canon

In 2015, Disney bought Lucasfilm and recategorized all Expanded Universe fiction as Legends, and therefore non-canon. In the years since, Dave Filoni and his story group have gradually begun to recanonize Legends elements in titles like Rebels, The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. Thrawn was naturally the first of these, brought in as the primary antagonist in Rebels seasons 3 and 4.

From there, a broader range and a new generation of fans began to understand how great Thrawn is as an Imperial Grand Admiral. During the Empire's reign he chased down the crew of the Ghost on Lothal, using the planet as a base to build his new TIE Defenders. His hope was to construct a fleet of fighters with better shielding.

Had he been successful, the rebels would not have been able to destroy the Death Star in the Battle of Yavin. Tarkin would have blown up the rebel base on Yavin 4, and that would have been it. That's part of the reason Thrawn is such a threat: he's the smartest guy in the room. If he hadn't been whisked away to hyperspace, the rebels probably would not have won.

The Rebels era also showed how Thrawn decodes his enemies by learning about their culture through their art. When he captured Hera Syndulla, he appreciated her Twi'lek art. To defeat an enemy, you must know them, not simply their battle tactics but their history and philosophy. He was also able to get inside Ezra Bridger's head by learning more and more about his background on Lothal.

Thrawn Ascendancy reveals his Chiss backstory

Thrawn's intelligence comes from a new canonical backstory laid out in a new trilogy of Thrawn books, Thrawn Ascendancy, which brought back the original author, Timothy Zahn. It details how Thrawn was born on a planet in the Unknown Regions. The Chiss have a cool habit of abbreviating names from the inside out, rather than taking the first part. That definitely says something about how complex the Chiss are as thinkers: they consider everything holistically, from the inside out.

He later took on the name Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn, and served as an officer for the Chiss Ascendancy, a smaller empire ruled by an oligarchy of Chiss. During the Clone Wars, Thrawn briefly worked with Anakin Skywalker on a mission on Batuu, the setting of Black Spire Outpost in Disney's Galaxy's Edge.

When the Clone Wars ended, Thrawn offered his services to the Empire, believing it would benefit the Chiss. In reality, he joined with dual loyalties, intending to learn as much as he could about Imperial weaknesses and overall strategy so he could use it to help his own people. Even so, he quickly rose through the ranks and was granted the title of Grand Admiral by Palpatine himself.

That was a huge deal, because the Empire was known to be xenophobic and only promoted humans to high positions. Compare the admirals, moffs and generals we know from the Empire to the people who lead the rebels, nonhumans like Admiral Raddus, Admiral Ackbar and Hera Syndulla. For Thrawn to rise past all of that as a Chiss shows how respected he was.

How Thrawn figured out Darth Vader was Anakin Skywalker

These books also show how Thrawn was able to deduce that Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker were the same person. In one moment, Thrawn says, tellingly, "many years ago I served briefly alongside General Anakin Skywalker." Vader uses the Force to try to read Thrawn's mind but finds his thoughts closed off to him.

In another moment, Thrawn talks about that old Clone Wars mission and says "we" before correcting himself. And from Thrawn's point of view, he watches Vader pilot a TIE Defender, spinning the fighter in a tight curve and doing a complete roll: "a familiar maneuver carried out with a familiar precision." Is he referring to Anakin's favorite barrel roll, the move he showed while piloting the Jedi starfighter in the Battle of Coruscant at the start of Revenge of the Sith?

Thrawn's path into live action through The Mandalorian

In the live action titles, Ahsoka Tano first brought up Thrawn's name in The Mandalorian chapter 13, demanding of Thrawn's servant, the magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, "where is Grand Admiral Thrawn." Clearly Ahsoka was still searching for Ezra Bridger after she and Sabine Wren teamed up at the end of Rebels, a search that looked like it was going to be renewed in the Ahsoka series.

In the final episodes of The Mandalorian season 3, Thrawn's protege, Captain Gilad Pellaeon, appeared in Moff Gideon's Shadow Council of Imperial warlords. He insisted they needed Thrawn's return to rally the scattered Imperial supporters across the galaxy to their cause, the way armies in real world history used mythologized commanders like George Washington or Robert E. Lee as recruitment tools. Moff Gideon dismissed the still missing Thrawn as a ghost, but Thrawn was clearly coming back.

Why Star Wars needs a villain as smart as Thrawn

So why is this such a big deal? We need someone actually smart and competent in the room to challenge these heroes and challenge the villains we've met so far. Between the New Republic bungling the management of the galaxy, the Mandalorians constantly endangering themselves and Moff Gideon's ridiculous arrogance, we need a villain with the cunning of the ISB boardroom scenes in Andor to make us fear these characters.

Specifically, we need a military strategist without a cultish subservience to Palpatine, or a fear of Palpatine's ghost. Thrawn stands in no one's shadow. He's truly the ghost we should be afraid of, because when someone says "somehow Thrawn returned," I don't think anybody's going to be laughing.