Season three of Star Wars Rebels will be available on Blu-ray on August 29, and it means you can relieve the introduction of Grand Admiral Thrawn to official Star Wars canon. He was introduced to the galaxy in Timothy Zahn‘s Heir to the Empire trilogy in the early ’90s. The blue-skinned Chiss villain became a beloved character in the Expanded Universe, now known as Legends, so bringing him into the current storytelling universe was no small undertaking. You can get an idea of what it took to inject Thrawn into Rebels in our exclusive behind-the-scenes video from the Blu-ray release.
My biggest takeaway from the video is how many people at Lucasfilm are serious fans of Thrawn and the novels in which he was introduced. Everyone from Lucasfilm senior vice president of development Kiri Hart, to Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni, to senior concept designer Amy Beth Christenson share fond memories of meeting Thrawn through the pages of Zahn’s work. Along with their enthusiasm, they have a kind of reverence for the character.
In making Grand Admiral Thrawn part of Star Wars Rebels, Filoni and his team worked with Zahn… and maybe got their copies of Heir to the Empire signed by the author. Because why not? Zahn created the calculating foe. The part of the video when he gets the news about his character coming to Rebels is delightful. You can see similarities to Zahn’s original take on the character in the animated series, as Thrawn faced off against the crew of the Ghost. Zahn re-shaped Thrawn and told his origin story in a novel set before the events of Star Wars Rebels.
This video and more never before seen bonus material and audio commentaries will be included on the season three Blu-ray, out on August 29.
Drop to the comments and tell me what you thought of Thrawn in Rebels.
Images: Lucasfilm/Disney XD
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