As Fan Expo Canada continues over the weekend, we had the chance to chat with guest Timothy Zahn who is known throughout Star Wars fandom as the creator of the villainous Grand Admiral Thrawn…
Zahn began writing Star Wars novels in 1991 with the publication of Star Wars: Heir to the Empire, a continuation of the adventures of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia and Han Solo set a few years after their victory over the Empire in Return of the Jedi. In that book, they must face against a resurgent Empire led by its new leader Grand Admiral Thrawn, a highly intelligent and dangerous adversary who is one of the greatest military tacticians the galaxy had ever seen.
Heir to the Empire became a hit on the bookshelves, helping launch Star Wars back into popularity in the early 1990s followed by the sequels Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. It also helped popularize the Expanded Universe of Star Wars with tales set years after the Original Trilogy, but Thrawn was its breakout character and has been a beloved fan-favourite for over 30 years.
After Disney bought Lucasfilm and turned the EU into Legends continuity, Thrawn was brought into the official canon beginning with the third season of Star Wars Rebels voiced by Lars Mikkelsen. Zahn then began writing a new series of Thrawn novels, detailing his backstory as he joined the Empire and rose through its ranks in Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason. He later went back even further into his backstory with the Thrawn Ascendency trilogy, exploring his military training on his homeworld Csilla. During that time, Thrawn made the leap from animation to live-action with Mikkelsen reprising the role in the first season of Ahsoka and will return for its second.
In our conversation, Zahn talked about Thrawn’s popularity, how he approached writing his backstory in a way that would not conflict with the original Thrawn Trilogy, new characters such as Eli Vanto and his confidence in Lucasfilm CCO Dave Filoni in bringing Thrawn to life. Watch our interview below…
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