‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ Casts Live-Action Thrawn

Mikkelsen and Tennant are both returning to ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ playing characters they have voiced in other animated ‘Star Wars’ series.

Scene from Lucasfilm's 'Ahsoka,' exclusively on Disney+.

Though it was part of the big TV panel on day 1 of Star Wars Celebration, ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ is clearly important enough to Kathleen Kennedy, Dave Filoni, Jon Favreau and the Lucasfilm team that they dedicated a whole panel to it alone on day 2 –– and held over some casting nuggets and other information to justify the special attention.

The series, which focuses on rebellious and headstrong Jedi warrior Ahsoka Tano (introduced in animated form in ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ and played in live-action on ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ by Rosario Dawson, will follow the title character as she looks to track down evidence that the villainous Grand Admiral Thrawn (voiced by Lars Mikkelsen in the animated ‘Star Wars Rebels’ show that also saw Ahsoka appear) will return to be a big threat for her and her friends.

Grand Admiral Thrawn, as seen in 'Star Wars: Rebels.'

Who is Grand Admiral Thrawn?

Thrawn was originally created by author Timothy Zahn as part of a series of Star Wars novels released in the 1990s that covered the time period after ‘Return of the Jedi.’ He was a cunning and ruthless Grand Admiral in the Empire who takes control of what’s left of the Imperial fleet and mounts a counter-offensive to take down the New Republic.

But after Disney purchased Lucasfilm in 2012, Zahn’s novels –– and Thrawn with 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 ‘The Force Awakens.’

Still, Filoni was able to bring him back for ‘Rebels’ and is now making him the primary antagonist in ‘Ahsoka’.

Dawson was on stage for the panel (along with a physical version of ‘Rebels’ droid Chopper, who will also appear in the new show, and brought up the danger of Thrawn.

Here’s what Dawson had to say,

“That guy… Ahsoka really is driven by trying to do good. I think she recognises a threat that other people aren’t necessarily seeing. He is formidable, and not someone to take lightly. She has sensed that there is something, that these foes are not easily dismissed.”

While fans both in attendance and online had been treated to the ‘Ahsoka’ trailer yesterday, a new version ran during the panel, revealing that Mikkelsen will be crossing over from ‘Rebels’ to play Thrawn in live-action. He was brought up on stage and revealed how thrilled he was to be playing the role again.

Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) in Lucasfilm's 'Ahsoka,' exclusively on Disney+.

Who else was announced for ‘Ahsoka’?

He’ll be joined by Diana Lee Inosanto, who debuted the character of Morgan Elsbeth in ‘The Mandalorian’ Season 2 and returns as a thorn in Ahsoka’s side here.

Here’s Inosanto on Morgan,

“She absolutely is very loyal to Grand Admiral Thrawn. But we also know she’s a hard worker. You’re gonna learn more about her background, I’m really excited about that.”

We also learned that Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno are playing villainous characters called Baylon and Shin in the series, but while we know they’ll be collaborating with Morgan and Thrawn, Filoni and the rest aren’t revealing anything else.

Huyang in Lucasfilm's 'Ahsoka,' exclusively on Disney+.

And Thrawn/Morgan aren’t the only holdovers planned for the show, as Filoni also revealed that David Tennant is lending his voice to the live-action take on Jedi tutor droid Huyang from ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’. “You have to have him,” Filoni said. “He makes it work.”

Behind the scenes, we also now know that Filoni has directed episodes of the show, with episodes from Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel and Rick Famuyiwa, while Kevin Kiner, who wrote Ahsoka’s theme, and composed the music for most of the animated series, is back to score ‘Ahsoka’.

To date, Disney and Lucasfilm will only confirm that ‘Ahsoka’ will start on Disney+ this coming August.

Rosario Dawson is Ahsoka Tano in Lucasfilm's 'Ahsoka,' exclusively on Disney+.

Kathy Kennedy talks other ‘Star Wars’ projects

In related ‘Star Wars’ news, Variety interviewed Kennedy about some of the big film and TV developments as announced yesterday –– including asking about some of the titles and filmmakers that were conspicuous by their absence from the panels.

We learned, for example, that one of the big three new ‘Star Wars’ movies planned by Lucasfilm will see the return of Daisy Ridley’s Rey. Set 15 years beyond ‘The Rise of Skywalker’ the movie, to be directed by Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, is set in an era described as the New Jedi Order and see Rey establishing a bountiful new age of Force-users in the wake of the Skywalker Saga.

Kennedy said this about informing Ridley she’d be back holding a lightsaber again,

“It was a pretty straightforward phone call. I started out by just saying, ‘Hey, I think we’re getting near being ready.’ We’ve been talking a lot about what we’re doing in the movie space and I think we’re getting close to being ready. How would you like to go to Celebration?’ That was really the beginning of it. She was out of her mind excited.”

(L to R) Daisy Ridley and director Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy at Star Wars Celebration 2023.

Someone who didn’t take the stage yesterday was ‘The Last Jedi’ director Rian Johnson, who is reportedly interested in returning to ‘Star Wars’ but is currently engaged elsewhere. Should we suspect foul play? Apparently not.

Kennedy had this to say,

“Rian and I talk all the time. He is unbelievably busy. So we’re not actively involved in anything at the moment because he’s doing another one of the ‘Glass Onion’ movies and then God knows what else. But he really wants to step back into the space. It’s a big commitment of time, so that’s really on him.”

Someone who is more actively looking to be part of the ‘Star Wars’ galaxy is ‘Thor: Love & Thunder’ director Taika Waititi, who has been writing a screenplay.

Of the director, Kennedy said this,

“Taika is still working away. He’s writing the script himself. He doesn’t really want to bring others into that process and I don’t blame him. He has a very, very unique voice. So we want to protect that and that’s what he’s doing. But we’re going to make that one day.”

‘Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi’ Poster Courtesy of Disney+

And finally, to bring it all back to TV, Kennedy admitted that Lucasfilm currently has no plans for a second season of ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’.

Here’s Kennedy on the show,

“That is not an active development. But I never say never, because there’s always the possibility. That show was so well-received and director Deborah Chow did such a spectacular job. Ewan McGregor really wants to do another. Everybody’s all hands on deck with what we’re doing right now, as you can see by what we showed everybody at the Celebration. We’ll turn our attention to that again maybe down the road.”