At Star Wars Celebration in London, it was revealed that Lars Mikkelsen will be playing the role of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series Ahsoka, and he was brought out on stage at the end of the Ahsoka panel.

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The series focuses on Ahsoka Tano. Debuting in the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Ahsoka Tano was the Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker, then appearing as a lead character in the Clone Wars animated series and also appeared in Star Wars Rebels.

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Thrawn is a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral who has had an interesting history in Star Wars lore. Originally created by author Timothy Zahn, he appeared in a series of novels in the 90s set after events of The Return of the Jedi where he took control of what was left of the Imperial fleet and mounted a counter-offensive to take down the New Republic. After Lucasfilm was purchased by Disney in 2012, Zahn’s novels, and the history of Thrawn, were removed from Star Wars canon and rebranded as ‘Star Wars Legends’. However, the character was brought back into canon via Dave Filoni in 2016 for the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, which takes place in between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

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Lars Mikkelsen voiced the character in the animated series, so it’ll be interesting to see how much of a role he gets in the upcoming series of Ahsoka.

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The series is written by Dave Filoni, who will also serve as executive producer alongside Jon Favreau. The series also stars Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Eman Esfandi, Hayden Christensen, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, Ray Stevenson and Genevieve O’Reilly.

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Ahsoka is scheduled to premiere on Disney+ in August 2023.