In terms of pure fan service, “The Jedi” was the most substantial episode of The Mandalorian by far. Rosario Dawson’s debut as Ahsoka Tano generated exactly the sort of reaction from folks that Lucasfilm would have been expecting, as the beloved animated character made an incredible live-action bow. If that wasn’t enough, Snips named-dropped Grand Admiral Thrawn for good measure, sending audiences familiar with The Clone Wars and Rebels into raptures.
There are only two episodes of the current season left, though, and there’s still a whole lot of storytelling ground to cover, so it seems very unlikely that we’ll see the nefarious villain who goes by Mitth’raw’nuruodo on a Sunday showing up in The Mandalorian until next year at the earliest. However, given what we know so far about Disney’s plans for an expansive small screen universe set in a galaxy far, far away, the studio could also be holding back on introducing Thrawn properly until Ahsoka gets her own series.
In any case, the blue-skinned baddie has been a firm favorite among followers of the expanded mythology for close to three decades, and gained a new legion of fans when he showed up in the third season of Rebels, quickly earning a reputation as one of the most formidable bad guys in Star Wars history. And now that he’s confirmed to be coming to live-action, the rumor mill about potential casting has already started heating up.
Of course, Thrawn was voiced by Lars Mikkelsen in Rebels, who also happens to be a very talented individual with a knack for tackling cerebral villains, and the latest report claims that he’s in talks to reprise the role in The Mandalorian before becoming a regular feature of the Disney Plus shows. The 56 year-old would certainly be both an obvious and inspired choice to follow the Bo-Katan route and keep the same actor when making the jump, but for now, we’ll just have to wait and see what Lucasfilm decides to do.