The Star Wars Celebration Europe convention earlier this month saw a ton of reaction to all sorts of announcements and reveals from new films to trailers for upcoming shows and more.
Yet according to those on the ground, the biggest cheer of excitement across the whole convention was the reveal of Lars Mikkelsen reprising his “Star Wars Rebels” animated voice role of Grand Admiral Thrawn in live-action form for the upcoming “Star Wars: Ahsoka” series.
The news followed years of speculation about who would be playing Thrawn in live-action form someday, and Mikkelsen himself deflecting queries over the past few months.
The character, first introduced in the 1991 novel “Heir to the Empire,” is a blue-skinned Chiss considered the best strategic military mind of the Empire. On the screen, Thrawn was inserted into the story of “Star Wars Rebels” and then referred to again recently on “The Mandalorian” as someone who hasn’t been seen for years.
Though the event was nearly two weeks ago, Collider has just published a post-event interview with Mikkelsen from London where he talked about returning to the role and how happy he wad with Dave Filoni’s construction of the character:
“Dave Filoni’s writing is very good, it’s very strong, and all the characters have their own drive. You will probably not know totally what it’s all about until that very last scene, and I like that way of writing, that you take your audience so seriously that you allow them to think for themselves, that we drag it out right until the last moments what the whole thing is about. Maybe I can’t talk too much more about it after that!”
Mikkelsen says the quality of the writing in regards to the character, who is easily the smartest person in any room, makes the acting reasonably easy:
“That’s what you want as an actor. You don’t want to reveal everything, you want your secrets, and when it’s within the script, it’s the best. It’s effortless in that sense. You can only play the moment, and you don’t have to push anything because the story writing is so good that it will tell the story for you.
The makeup process was between two and three hours. We got it down to two-something, 2:30 maybe. It’s alright, you’re getting into the character, and it’s appearing in front of you.”
The first trailer for “Ahsoka” was released at Star Wars Celebration though Thrawn was only shown from behind and not glimpsed in his full blue-skinned form. We’ll see that reveal hopefully soon and likely ahead of the premiere of “Ahsoka” in August.
