Star Wars: 'Thrawn' Comic Preview Reveals the Villain's Past

More than 20 years after his debut in a series of Star Wars books, Grand Admiral Thrawn has received new life thanks to his appearances in the animated series Star Wars Rebels and a novel named after him. The nefarious mastermind is sure to grow in popularity when comic book Thrawn debuts next year, an exclusive preview of which StarWars.com recently debuted.

Per the site, the series is "a six-issue adaptation of Timothy Zahn's novel of the same name, kicks off on February 7, 2018, and will document the iconic Imperial's rise in the Empire — before he was a legend. Written by Jody Houser (Marvel's Rogue One adaptation) and illustrated by Luke Ross (Star Wars: Darth Maul, Marvel's Star Wars: The Force Awakens adaptation), the series will also include never-before-revealed scenes featuring the infamous master strategist."

In the preview, fans get to see Thrawn, a.k.a. Mitth'raw'nuruodo, showing himself to the Empire. Check out the preview by heading to StarWars.com.

In 2012, Disney purchased Lucasfilm and initiated a new directive that the only canon events of the Star Wars universe were the events of the live-action films and the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series, reducing Thrawn to merely existing in an alternate reality. Thanks to the work of Dave Filoni and the creative team behind Star Wars Rebels, the character was given a second life and brought back as an integral component of the canon narrative.

In a featurette for Season 3 of Rebels, Filoni explained, "Kiri Hart [member of the Lucasfilm Story Group] and I had played with the idea of putting Thrawn in Rebels for a while."

Hart echoed those sentiments, explaining, "Before I ever worked at Lucasfilm or ever imagined that I could work at Lucasfilm, I loved that trilogy, Heir to the Empire. I loved the character immediately. He was just so different."

"There was a particular character that would always come up with us in our Story Group meetings, especially for our characters in the Empire, and that is Thrawn. We've taken him and put him into Rebels," Filoni explained to Timothy Zahn, writer of the original Thrawn novels, while revealing to the author about reviving the character.

"I am honored and floored and excited and scared all at the same time," Zahn joked.

You can pick up Thrawn when it debuts in February. You can also see Thrawn in the most recent season of Star Wars Rebels.

[H/T StarWars.com]