Disney casting Grand Admiral Thrawn for new Star Wars project?

The Mandalorian season 2 will premiere in October of this year, and when it does, fan favorite Star Wars characters like Ahsoka Tano, Bo-Katan and even Boba Fett will be making appearances. There are even rumors that Sabine Wren and Rex from Star Wars Rebels will pop up, as well as Cobb Vanth, a character from a popular Star Wars novel.

And there are rumors — and we want to stress that these are definitely rumors — of even more familiar faces coming aboard. According to Star Wars fan site Star Wars News Net, Disney is looking to cast someone to play Grand Admiral Thrawn, the blue-skinned Chiss who became Emperor Palpatine’s right-hand man in the Empire’s war against the Rebellion.

The report originally comes from The Disinsider, which reports that Thrawn might even be up for his own live-action series on Disney+. That might make more sense than giving him a cameo in The Mandalorian, which is already getting crowded with legacy characters. And Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) is plenty of villain for that show. But anything could happen.

If you’re unfamiliar with Thrawn, the character was created by author Timothy Zahn for the Star Wars Extended Universe book Heir to the Empire, the first novel in the very popular Thrawn Trilogy. When Disney acquired Lucasfilm in 2012, the Extended Universe was renamed Star Wars Legends and sort of phased out of the canon.

But Thrawn was too popular to remain sidelined. In 2016, The Mandalorian showrunner Dave Filoni brought the Grand Admiral out of retirement, making him a main antagonist on the animated show Star Wars Rebels, which is set years before The Mandalorian. In the Rebels series finale, Thrawn disappears into the unknown reaches of space alongside Ezra Bridger.

Meanwhile, Disney tasked Zahn with rewriting Thrawn’s backstory for an all-new trilogy of novels simply called Star Wars: Thrawn. So he’s part of the Star Wars canon according to Disney, and could theoretically show up again, in The Mandalorian or elsewhere.

Finally, another rumor has surfaced from Bespin Bulletin that Pedro Pascal — who plays the title character in The Mandalorian — will actually be wearing the Mandalorian armor a lot more in season 2. In season 1, Brendan Wayne and Lateef Crowder served as Pascal’s stunt doubles for many scenes, and of course we wouldn’t know when because the character kept his helmet on for all but one moment of the first season. Hopefully we’ll get to see more of his face in season 2?

Yes, yes, the show makes it clear that Mandalorians always keep their helmets on, but in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Rebels animated shows, Mandalorian characters like Bo-Katan and Sabine Wren — as well as a bevy of Mandalorian warriors — removed their helmets all the time, so Din Djarin can take off that helmet without feeling guilty now. And he did take off his helmet to eat when he was visiting that village in the fourth episode; we just didn’t see his face then.

We demand faces!

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels