Thrawn to make grand appearance in 'Star Wars Rebels' (original) (raw)

Grand Admiral Thrawn, a fan-favorite villain from the 1990s Star Wars novels, is being reintroduced to the universe and joining official Lucasfilm canon in the Disney XD animated series Star Wars Rebels.

Executive producer Dave Filoni announced the news at a panel for the cartoon Saturday at London's Star Wars Celebration event, in addition to premiering a trailer for the show's upcoming third season, which debuts in the fall.

A blue-skinned militaristic leader, Thrawn emerged as one of Star Wars fandom's favorite villains in the era following George Lucas' original movie trilogy. He was one of the main characters in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy published in the early '90s that caught up with Han, Luke and Leia following Return of the Jedi.

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On Rebels, which is set in a time before the first Star Wars film, the character will be voiced by Lars Mikkelsen — older brother of Mads Mikkelsen, star of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — and pitted against fledgling young Rebels such as Ezra Bridger (Taylor Gray) and Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.).

The Imperial bad guy also will be the star of the upcoming book Star Wars: Thrawn, coming in April 2017 and penned by Zahn.