Who Is Playing Grand Admiral Thrawn in ‘Ahsoka’? Is Lars Mikkelsen Returning?

The trailer of the upcoming Ahsoka series wasn’t shy about the fact that we will see the live-action version of Grand Admiral Thrawn making his debut. His name was mentioned in the trailer and shown in that teaser, albeit the back of his body was only shown. This has led some fans to make assumptions about who could be the man playing the role of Thrawn.
It has been confirmed that Lars Mikkelsen will be portraying Grand Admiral Thrawn in the upcoming Ahsoka series. Lucasfilm revealed the actor’s identity during the Star Wars Celebration event just one day after the Ahsoka trailer was released. As such, he follows Bo-Katan’s Katee Sackhoff as one of the few actors to reprise the live-action roles of their animated counterparts.
At this point, we are quite excited about what Lars Mikkelsen can offer as the live-action version of Thrawn. We already saw the amazing job he did back in the events of Rebels, and we are sure that he will bring the same magic and mystique that his animated counterpart had. Now, let’s look at what kind of Thrawn Lars Mikkelsen will bring to the table in the upcoming Ahsoka series.
Lars Mikkelsen Is Playing Thrawn
There have been a lot of iconic villains in the Star Wars world. Names such as Darth Sidious, Darth Vader, and Count Dooku have all been iconic in their own right. But the one non-Sith villain that fans were quick to warm up to was Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was first introduced in Timothy Zahn’s novels back in the 90s and was able to make his first canon appearance in the Star War: Rebels series, which ran from 2014 to 2018.
While Thrawn was a major villain in Rebels, it was only during the second half of the series that he stepped into the role of the main antagonist of the series as he hunted down the Rebels using his tactical mind and cold and calculating nature. Thrawn’s personality as a logical character was given life by Lars Mikkelsen, the actor who voiced the Grand Admiral in the Rebels series.
Mikkelsen’s run as Thrawn’s voice actor ended in 2018 when the Rebels series concluded. But we know that Thrawn is still alive and is set to make his live-action debut in the Ahsoka series released in the summer of 2023. At this point, the actor playing Thrawn has been kept a secret by the people behind the Ahsoka series. In fact, in the released teaser trailer, we could only see Thrawn from behind, as his face was never revealed.
This allowed fans to speculate about the actor playing Grand Admiral Thrawn in the series. Fans were hoping for Lars Mikkelsen to reprise the role because he did a great job voicing the character in Rebels. Internet sleuths started flooding the web to show evidence that Mikkelsen could be the one portraying Thrawn in Ahsoka.
A day after the Ahsoka trailer was announced, Lucasfilm finally announced that Lars Mikkelsen is indeed the one portraying the blue-skinned Grand Admiral in the Ahsoka series. Mikkelsen himself came to greet the crowd at the Star Wars Celebration event in London, and fans were excited to see him reprising his role as one of the most popular Star Wars villains of all time.
This means that, along with Katee Sackhoff, Lars Mikkelsen is one of the few characters to translate their roles in the animated series to the live-action versions. We know that Sackhoff voiced Bo-Katan Kryze in the animated series and went on to play her live-action version in The Mandalorian. As such, Mikkelsen should bring the same consistency that Sackhoff brought to the table.
What Can We Expect from Mikkelsen’s Live-Action Thrawn?
As mentioned, the best thing about Lars Mikkelsen reprising his role as Grand Admiral Thrawn in the live-action version is that he brings consistency. We all loved his version in the animated Rebels series because he gave Thrawn a commanding presence with his voice acting.
But we also know that there’s a fine line between voice acting and actual acting, and that means that it might be challenging for Mikkelsen to not only give Thrawn a commanding presence with his voice but also with the way that he portrays the different habits and mannerisms of the blue-skinned tactician.
Nevertheless, we believe that Mikkelsen will bring a more mature version of Thrawn, considering that ten years have passed since his character disappeared at the end of the Rebels series. As such, Thrawn might be an older and even wiser enemy than he ever was. And this could be why he could pose the greatest threat to the galaxy since the days of the Empire.