Star Wars Series ‘Ahsoka’ Casts Lars Mikkelsen as Fan-Favorite Villain Grand Admiral Thrawn

Grand Admiral Thrawn is finally flesh and bone.

Lars Mikkelsen (House of Cards, Sherlock) is set to play the longstanding Star Wars villain on the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka, Lucasfilm announced on Saturday as part of the Star Wars Celebration fan convention in London. Mikkelsen brother of actor Mads Mikkelsen also joined the cast of Ahsoka onstage at the end of the panel, saying that its wonderful to be cast in the live-action role.

Thrawn was originally created by author Timothy Zahn as part of a series of Star Wars novels released in the 1990s that covered the events following 1983s Return of the Jedi. In those books, Thrawn was a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral in the Empire who takes control of whats left of the Imperial fleet and mounts a counter-offensive to take down the New Republic.

Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels. With his ice blue skin and crimson red eyes, Thrawn quickly became a favorite among hardcore Star Wars fans. But after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Zahns novels and Thrawns role in them were removed from Star Wars canon and rebranded as Star Wars Legends, in order to make room for the sequel film trilogy starting with 2015s The Force Awakens.

The character, however, didnt die. George Lucas protege Dave Filoni resurrected the character in 2016 for the animated series Star Wars: Rebels, maintaining a great deal of Thrawns biography and backstory. Mikkelsen voiced Thrawn in the series, which takes place in the events between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.

The prospect of the character stepping into live action was first suggested in Season 2 of The Mandalorian in the episode that first introduced Rosario Dawson as the Jedi warrior Ahsoka Tano, one of the lead characters from Filonis Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated TV series. In that episode, Ahsoka demands another character tell her where to find Thrawn, though the answer was never revealed.