Star Wars: ‘Thrawn: Alliances’ Cover Debuts Darth Vader’s Partnership

Following Disney’s purchase of Lucasfilm, Grand Admiral Thrawn was relegated to the furthest corners of Star Wars canon, with his existence all but erased from the official narrative. Luckily, Thrawn is back in a big way and in the upcoming book Thrawn: Alliances, he’ll stand shoulder-to-shoulder with one of the most iconic villains of all-time, Darth Vader. Check out the cover of the book below.

The new novel will be available on June 26, 2018. The official synopsis is as follows:

“Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader ally against a threat to the Empire in this new novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn. The sequel to New York Times bestseller Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances will continue to follow the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn to the heights of Imperial power—and accompany him into the past, witnessing his first encounter with the man who will one day become Darth Vader.”

Not only did Zahn write the immensely popular Thrawn novel, he also wrote the beloved original trilogy of books that made the character rise in popularity. The announcement of the sequel came last month at New York Comic Con.

“The really difficult part about something like this is, once you have done Thrawn in a book, where do you go from here? How do you up the game, what can you do to make it even better?” Zahn shared at the Star Wars publishing panel, followed by the reveal of a Darth Vader image.

Thrawn returned to become an official part of the new canon with his appearances in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, exciting fans of the character while also introducing a whole new audience to his terror. He quickly became a fan-favorite and plays a pivotal role in the final season of the series.

In a special feature on the Star Wars Rebels Season 3 Blu-ray, show creator Dave Filoni revealed, “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.”

You’ll be able to see more Thrawn when Star Wars Rebels returns to Disney XD next year, in addition to a comic book adaptation of the Thrawn novel being released by Marvel.

[H/T YouTube, Star Wars]