Last year, former Disney CEO Bob Iger hinted that The Mandalorian could serve as the launchpad for the next generation of Star Wars projects, which was music to the ears of the many fans that felt the Sequel Trilogy left a lot to be desired. After all, there are almost limitless possibilities when it comes to a galaxy far, far away, but for over 40 years the studio had been repeatedly telling us that every major event is directly tied to the Skywalker family in some way.
With Mando’s second run set to dive deeper into the canon and hand live-action debuts to animated favorites Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan, the show appears to be aiming to find a balance between recognizable characters and iconography while also telling an original and fresh story. There’s been no shortage of names from both The Clone Wars and Rebels rumored to be getting themselves involved in an upcoming Star Wars tale, and the latest report claims that Grand Admiral Thrawn could be next in line.
According to tipster Mikey Sutton, Lucasfilm are in the early stages of developing a spinoff movie set in the world of The Mandalorian, and Thrawn is pegged to be the main villain. The blue-skinned baddie has frequently been linked with making the jump into live-action over the past little while, of course, having established himself as a fan favorite antagonist in no time at all after debuting in 1991 novel Heir to the Empire before being introduced to a wider audience in the third season of Rebels.
The studio could even go down the Bo-Katan route and have the same actor reprise the role, with Mads Mikkelsen already having played several cunning and devious bad guys in the past. In any case, Thrawn is one of the best Star Wars villains in recent memory, and would be a solid addition to the franchise’s live-action lineup.