Star Wars: Thrawn Voice Actor Lars Mikkelsen Reveals Changes for Ahsoka Series

By Adam Barnhardt

As Lucasfilm begins to adapt its animated characters for live-action, some actors who've voiced the characters in animation are making the leap to the television screen. One of the most notable to date will be seen in Ahsoka, with Lars Mikkelsen returning to play Grand Admiral Thrawn, a character he previously voiced in Star Wars Rebels. According to Mikkelsen, he approached the live-action show differently than Rebels because of the shift in medium.

"I'm not losing the voice, but I am tweaking it into live-action," Mikkelsen said in a recent chat with Empire Magazine. "When you do an animated character, there's a whole melodious approach. When you're there as a real person, that would be just slightly too much."

He added, "I love the way he rises through the Empire, and the way he carries himself in that environment to become somebody. And then of course, how can you not like a very clever villain? Thrawn takes the time to understand his opponent's culture, and what they're about. It's lovely to be playing that."

Will Thrawn return after Ahsoka?

According to Lucasfilm executive Dave Filoni, Thrawn is seen at the studio as the new Big Bad for this era of the Star Wars timeline.

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"Definitely, in my eyes. When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire, Thrawn became this very iconic villain, because he was different than anything we'd seen before. He wasn't another helmet-wearing, lightsaber-wielding bad guy, you know? There's a lot of pull to make characters that are like Vader, because it is so iconic," Filoni told the magazine. "But the boldness that Tim had was to make somebody that wasn't like that, that didn't have those abilities, but could fight in a different way. In the words 'Star Wars,' the 'war' part of it -- him being a Grand Admiral, a leader, a military strategist, a Moriarty archetype, someone that will out-think you, out-strategize you -- that really resonated. He's a critical player in this time period. We're fortunate to have that character, and fortunate to have Lars [Mikkelsen] playing him."

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, premiering in August on the streamer. The series picks up after the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which we saw the former Jedi searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and helping Luke Skywalker train Grogu. Ahsoka will be joined on her new mission alongside longtime allies Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as they attempt to track down Thrawn, who was last seen disappearing to the far reaches of space after a confrontation with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Star Wars: Ahsoka is the latest live-action series from Lucasfilm's creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

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