Timothy Zahn Has More Thrawn Stories To Tell

04/02/2017 11:40 am EDT

When Disney purchased Lucasfilm and announced their intentions to do away with a majority of the Star Wars Extended Universe stories so that they could establish their own continuity, many fans were rightfully upset.

The concern was that a lot of the stories they love, cherish, and grew up with no longer mattered—dashed to the wind. And while there is a lot to pick and choose from in the greater Extended Universe of stories, few resonated with people like Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy.

Which is why it was such a big deal when it was announced the blue skinned Thrawn, Grand Admiral would be the primary antagonist in Star Wars Rebels' third season.

Fans flipped out, and then they were given even more good news when Lucasfilm revealed a new Zahn-penned novel is forthcoming, simply titled Thrawn.

At Emerald City Comicon last month, Zahn spoke to his fans during a panel about the new developments, how he was approached by Lucasfilm to make the book, and what he plans to do after it releases.

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Details from the panel were scant until the Far Far Away Radio podcast posted their recap. It mentions that Zahn was invited to speak with members of the Lucasfilm Story Group and knew it was a big deal when he found out Dave Filoni was in attendance. After picking his brain regarding all things Thrawn, Zahn found out they were adding him in to Star Wars Rebels.

Then they asked him to write a new book. And now that the novel is set to be released, Zahn has turned his eye toward the future. FFAR's recap says he's pitching sequels, half-joking that he wants to do three more books—Zahn's already written a Thrawn Trilogy and a Thrawn Duology, so why not a Quadrilogy this time?

An excerpt from the forthcoming Thrawn novel indicates the character had met Anakin Skywalker once before, and that story is one of the sequels he's pitching now.

Hopefully Lucasfilm gets this man back into the fold with a regular output. It would go a long way toward appeasing fans of the Extended Universe.

Thrawn will be released on April 11.

Star Wars Rebels' third season finished airing last week, but it will return later this year for Season 4.

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Star Wars Rebels airs Saturdays at 8:30 p.m. ET/PT on Disney XD, and follows the adventures of Hera (Vanessa Marshall), Sabine (Tiya Sircar), Zeb (Steve Blum), and the Jedi Kanan (Freddie Prinze, Jr.) and Ezra (Taylor Gray), a small crew that's finding their way in the nascent Rebel Alliance a few years before the events of Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope.

Executive produced by Simon Kinberg and Dave Filoni, the in-canon series helps to connect the worlds of the films and the previous animated series, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, with guest appearances so far by characters like Lando Calrissian, Ahsoka Tano, Darth Vader, Darth Maul, Leia Organa, Wedge Antilles, and more.

[h/t] Star Wars News Net

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