Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn Grand Admiral Thrawn is back in Thrawn: Alliances, the sequel to Timothy Zahn's fantastic 2017 novel Thrawn.
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It's a sequel to 2017's Thrawn (which covered the villain's origins) and Thrawn: Alliances, the sequel that brought Thrawn and Darth Vader together for the first time.
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What we've got is some of the same distrust between Anakin and Thrawn as we have with Vader and Thrawn.
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Thrawn: Alliances feels more at home in the new canon, especially because Thrawn has been fleshed out a bit more in Rebels.
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She was introduced in Heir to the Empire along with Thrawn, and arguably she's one of the best-known EU characters after Thrawn.
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Thrawn: Alliances picks up the story, but alternates between an encounter between Anakin Skywalker and Thrawn during The Clone Wars, and much later, during the events of Rebels.
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Thrawn by Timothy Zahn When Star Wars Rebels producer Dave Filoni announced last year that beloved EU character Grand Admiral Thrawn was joining the show, I did a little dance.
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Thrawn: Alliances by Timothy Zahn, June 26th Last year, Timothy Zahn wrote the definitive origin story for one of the Star Wars Expanded Universe's (and now Rebels') iconic villains: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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How does it feel to be writing about Thrawn again?
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Thrawn tends to win his battles with brain, not brawn.
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At the 2017 New York Comic Con, he announced that he was returning to the character with another novel called Thrawn: Alliances, and that Thrawn would team up with another iconic villain: Darth Vader.
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Thrawn and Vanto are sent off to an Imperial academy and into the fleet, where Thrawn distinguishes himself as a brilliant tactical commander as he hunts down pirates and a group of increasingly organized insurgents.
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This version of Thrawn is indistinguishable from the original, 1991 version.
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They're not canon, but as Thrawn proves, they're no less special.
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Alliances isn't the only place that we'll see Thrawn next year.
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The book, titled Thrawn, is due to be released April 2017.
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Hopefully, we'll be rejoining Thrawn for new adventures somewhere down the road.
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We've already covered Thrawn in some detail, but we'll reiterate: it's a fine book, one that works really well as an entry point for the franchise, but also serves as a good setup for the original Thrawn trilogy.
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Oga's Cantina, the tavern, is referenced in "Thrawn: Alliances," a Lucasfilm-sanctioned novel.
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The new Thrawn also appreciates art and recognizes its value in understanding an enemy.
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Thrawn by Timothy Zahn — April 103th I might have done a dance in my chair when this news came across last fall: Timothy Zahn is returning to the Star Wars universe with the character that brought back the franchise, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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While that storyline was wiped out when Disney acquired LucasFilm and reset the franchise's canon, Thrawn was reintroduced in Star Wars Rebels, and Zahn wrote the definitive origin story for the character in Thrawn — which could serve both the old canon and the new.
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How did it feel to come back to Thrawn, so many years after you created him?
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What do you think this says for how fan culture has changed since Thrawn was introduced?
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In the previous Star Wars expanded universe, Thrawn was a different sort of villain for the franchise.
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One of the things that I came across recently is a Lego set with a Thrawn minifigure.
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When Donald Glover said that Lando Calrissian's pansexuality included droids, nobody's Thrawn books spontaneously erupted in flames.
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One of the most famous villains of the Star Wars universe is coming back: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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But with this novel Thrawn returns, and Zahn finally gets to explore the origins of his classic character.
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Thrawn "was one of the most challenging characters we ever had to cast," Filoni said during the panel.
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The Chiss are calculating, ruthless, and careful as a species, and Thrawn was one of their very best.
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She was another Thrawn trilogy alum, but I felt like she was fleshed out more in the comics.
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Thrawn proves to have a singular tactical mind, one that Emperor Palpatine personally recognizes and recruits into his military.
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It has a working title of Thrawn: Alliances, and it will feature another iconic Star Wars villain: Darth Vader.
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When Filoni announced that Thrawn was returning, we also learned that you would be writing a book about him.
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In the end, Thrawn is who he is, and the fun is watching him face new and different challenges.
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Lucasfilm and Del Rey Books revealed today that Timothy Zahn is writing a new Star Wars novel: Thrawn: Treason.
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This year has been interesting for Star Wars novels: we had Christie Golden's Inferno Squad, and Timothy Zahn's Thrawn.
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Anakin doesn't have any of that background, and he's being forced to work with Thrawn because of the circumstances.
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Thrawn can see stuff that maybe other people don't: he can anticipate, while Vader can be the brute force.
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Grand Admiral Thrawn was introduced to the Star Wars universe in Timothy Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire.
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As they rise, Thrawn and Vanto navigate the waters of Imperial politics and society, prevailing against ingrained nepotism and corruption.
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Your first Star Wars novel, Heir to the Empire, came out in 1991, and introduced readers to Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Last year, one of the Star Wars Expanded Universe's biggest fan-favorite characters, Grand Admiral Thrawn, was given new life.
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But in this clip from the Rebels finale, exclusive to Mashable, Thrawn shows he's not above using fisticuffs when necessary.
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While this is a book that fans have wanted to read for decades, Thrawn is a tough sell for a protagonist.
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Thrawn opens when an Imperial ground team encounters a hut on a seemingly abandoned planet at the edge of Imperial space.
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There are also a number of new books that explore secondary and tertiary characters, including Captain Phasma and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Another figure that I'm coveting actually made its debut earlier this year as a San Diego Comic-Con exclusive: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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During last year's Star Wars Celebration in London, Filoni announced to great fanfare that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be joining the show.
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Thrawn, in contrast, used strategy and careful planning and usually managed to be two or three steps ahead of the New Republic.
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It's one of a few recent books exploring the darker side of the franchise, along with Battlefront II: Inferno Squad and Thrawn.
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The Disney cartoon series Star Wars: Rebels brought back one of the EU's greatest villains, Grand Admiral Thrawn, in a prominent way.
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Star Wars: Rebels introduced Grand Admiral Thrawn, the blue-skinned Imperial officer who was a popular recurring character in the Legends timeline.
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Last summer, Dave Filoni announced that he would be bringing a long-standing fan-favorite character to Star Wars Rebels: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Zahn intertwines their stories as each climb ranks; Thrawn fighting on the battlefield, Pryce manipulating her way through the halls of power on Coruscant.
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Thrawn has always been smarter than the average imperial officer, and he forces the good guys to bring their A-game to the field.
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Disney announced this summer that Grand Admiral Thrawn, one of the best-known villains from Star Wars' past, would be reentering the official canon.
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The comic will adapt Thrawn by Timothy Zahn, which detailed the origins of the character, tracking how he rose through the ranks of the Imperial Navy.
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Thrawn, originally introduced in Zahn's 1991 novel Heir to the Empire, is a master tactician who attempted to resurrect the Empire after Return of the Jedi.
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Since Thrawn has returned, maybe we'll see other background elements that figured prominently into his plans from the books, such as Interdictor Cruisers or cloaked asteroids.
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LONDON — Ask any reader of Star Wars novels which book character they'd like to see on screen, and invariably you'll get one answer: Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Thrawn serves as an origin story for the character we meet in Rebels, as well as that of the Expanded Universe novels that Zahn wrote decades ago.
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When did you learn that Dave Filoni was intending to bring Thrawn to Rebels, and did you have any input into how the character would be handled?
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Antos believes the biggest appeal of Thrawn is that he represents a very different type of villain than the ones typically seen in the Star Wars universe.
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The best examples, like Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy in the Star Wars franchise or Karen Traviss' Halo novels, build on the original story in a meaningful way.
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Thrawn: Treason by Timothy Zahn Timothy Zahn effectively restarted the Star Wars franchise with his novel Heir to the Empire and its sequels way back in 1991.
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What role do you think a movie, or a book like Thrawn, has in leading the fans somewhere a bit more uncomfortable, as opposed to wish-fulfillment?
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As a long-time expanded universe reader, Thrawn is a book that I wanted to read — and assumed would never happen following the decanonization of the extended universe.
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And despite the moral quandary that one might have serving in the Empire, it is, at least for Thrawn, the only way to prepare for this larger threat.
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The company has approved a number of novelizations of its films as well as content that explores secondary and tertiary characters, including Captain Phasma and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Think of Thrawn, the character introduced in the 1991 novel Heir to the Empire and how he continues to be a part of the canon to this day.
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We're already extremely excited for its upcoming third season, which is going to be bringing back one of the Star Wars Expanded Universe's best villains: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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In the new book, the first in a trilogy, Zahn revisits Thrawn, a character he created inside the old canon who's been reworked for the post-Disney franchise.
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But it's a very different dynamic, because Vader isn't sure he trusts Thrawn, while on the other hand, the Emperor still has use for him, so he's limiting himself.
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Thrawn is one of the most interesting characters to come out of the Star Wars universe, and this novel is all about his rise through the ranks of the Empire.
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The three novels of the original Thrawn trilogy, Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command were each adapted by Dark Horse Comics between 1995 and 1998.
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Thrawn is notable because he's one of the only major characters from the Expanded Universe (EU) to make the leap between the previous Star Wars canon and Disney's new one.
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At Lucasfilm's publishing panel at New York City Comic Con today, Timothy Zahn announced that he will be writing a sequel to this year's Star Wars Rebels tie-in novel, Thrawn.
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I'd never written Thrawn in this part of the Star Wars timeline, so it was simply a matter of bringing him into the Empire and chronicling his rise through the ranks.
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There are more space battles, a daring rescue to save Hera, Grand Admiral Thrawn ordering a bombardment, and Ezra coming up against another major character from the films, Emperor Palpatine himself.
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Thrawn is already a fan-favorite character, and taking a visit to Batuu, as seen through the lens of the popular Grand Admiral, is an easy way to win folks over.
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The character will return to Rebels in its fourth and final season, and Marvel Comics announced that it would adapt Thrawn as a six-issue miniseries that will hit in February 2018.
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What's most impressive about this novel is that it feels as though it can serve as an origin story for Thrawn in both the present continuity, as well as the extended universe.
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First introduced alongside Thrawn in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire, Rukh was a Noghri warrior that served the Empire after his home planet of Honoghr was devastated following an orbital battle.
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Earlier this month, a new novel from author Timothy Zahn arrived in bookstores that Star Wars fans have been waiting a long time for: the definitive origin story for Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Now, after years of false rumors — that he was going to be in The Force Awakens, that he was going to be played by Benedict Cumberbatch — Thrawn is finally showing up on screen.
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Fiercely loyal to the Empire, believing that it saved them, he and his fellow Noghri commandos carried out assassinations and other missions at the bequest of Darth Vader, and later, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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At the time, this was fairly unique in the franchise: novels such as Timothy Zahn's Thrawn Trilogy or the Dark Empire comic book series kept the adventures of Luke Skywalker front and center.
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The SWEU did introduce totally new people alongside those familiar characters: Corran Horn, Mara Jade, Grand Admiral Thrawn, Jacen and Jaina Solo, who ended up owning their own adventures in their own right.
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The book will presumably pick up with where Thrawn left off, with the character now a Grand Admiral, and his loyal assistant headed off into the depths of Unknown Space on a secret mission.
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Guests will be transported to Batuu, a planet that isn't depicted in Star Wars movies but is in the Star Wars book "Thrawn: Alliances," a part of the so-called Star Wars Expanded Universe.
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Marvel Comics editor Heather Antos explained in an email to The Verge that Thrawn is a character that she'd asked her bosses to feature since she began working on the company's Star Wars line.
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Another expanded universe character is coming to Rebels Grand Admiral Thrawn appeared in the third season of Rebels, and the crew behind the show isn't done salvaging bits and pieces from the decanonized storyline.
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For those Star Wars fans out there who don't know who Thrawn is, go out and pick up Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command, all written by Timothy Zahn.
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But there's also some worrying associations here for the blue Grand Admiral: at the end of The Last Command, Rukh kills Thrawn after he learned of the Empire's complicity in the destruction of his homeworld.
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Earlier this year, he told The Verge that Thrawn has endured "because he was so different from any other villain we'd seen in Star Wars to that time," using strategy and tactics over brute force.
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I didn't have any real input into how Thrawn was going to be handled, mainly because the lead time of an animated series is so long that much of season 3 had already been finished.
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It follows Thrawn as he rises through the ranks of the Imperial Navy, meeting a number of characters from Rebels along the way as he tracks down smugglers and the earliest Rebel movements against the Empire.
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All three of these novels ask you to empathize with characters on the wrong side of Star Wars history: fan-favorite General Admiral Thrawn, upcoming Battlefront II soldier Iden Versio, and First Order enforcer Captain Phasma.
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Thrawn: Treason is the third novel about the character, who returns to his home planet after receiving a dire warning about a new threat to his people, one that will force him to choose between loyalties.
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In the latest season, the show brought in Expanded Universe character Grand Admiral Thrawn for a major story arc, and tied in heavily with the first standalone film, Rogue One by bringing in Saw Gerrera and Mon Mothma.
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While those original Expanded Universe books are no longer canon, the animated series Star Wars Rebels brought back the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Zahn returned in 2017 with a new story that explored the character's origins.
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We got a glimpse of Yavin IV as a setting, the U-Wing fighter and Imperial hover tanks that were prominently featured in Rogue One, as well as Bo-Katan Kryze from The Clone Wars, and Grand Admiral Thrawn.
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Specifically, the new novel Thrawn: Alliances from Timothy Zahn will send Darth Vader and the Grand Admiral together on a mission to Batuu, which io9 notes is the same planet that will serve as the setting for Galaxy's Edge.
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LucasFilm has been known to draw on characters from the now non-canon Expanded Universe, introducing characters such as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Rukh to Star Wars Rebels, but this would be a big leap from comic book page to screen.
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Thrawn is voiced by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen, famous for his appearance as the Russian premier in House of Cards — and brother of Mads Mikkelsen, who stars as the father of Jyn Erso in the upcoming Star Wars movie Rogue One.
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When the expanded universe was labeled non-canon in the lead up to The Force Awakens (described by Disney as a focusing of the Star Wars mythos) fans mourned that Thrawn would no longer be part of the larger story.
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That doesn't mean those books aren't worth reading: recently, Timothy Zahn returned to the Star Wars universe to tell the origins of his most famous character, Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was recently brought back into the canon via Star Wars Rebels.
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The new trailer shows off quite a bit to look forward to: space battles between the Empire and Rebels, the Imperial occupation of Mandalore, the introduction of X-Wings to the Alliance, and of course, Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Noghri assassin, Rukh.
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Where he was a brilliant military leader in Heir to the Empire, Thrawn here feels a bit more like an alien Sherlock Holmes, using logic and reasoning to plan out his next steps, even when they feel improbable to those surrounding him.
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On a meta level, it's fascinating to see how Thrawn reinforces Lucasfilm's attitude toward the decanonization of the expanded universe: while those stories are no longer canon, it's clear that the company didn't jettison its vast library of content because it felt it was bad.
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All of which to say is the Thrawn fans loved has been preserved (although quite a bit younger) and as such, if you squint a little, this book could easily be a predecessor for both the new canon, as well as that of the expanded universe.
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Where Emperor Palpatine was evil incarnate, and Darth Vader embodied raw power, Thrawn valued strategy and logical thinking to solve problems, and proved to be one of the most enduring characters from the books, comics, toys, and video games released in the decades following the original trilogy.
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The construction video shows off a sprawling world called Batuu — which we've seen a bit of already in Timothy Zahn's recent novel Thrawn: Alliances — and in particular, a village called Black Spire, described as a "remote trading outpost" in the midst of a forest of petrified trees.
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You talk a little about Thrawn's motivations in this novel (they're complicated), but can you speak to whether or not you see Thrawn as a good guy making the best out of a terrible situation, or do you see him as part of the evil of the Empire?
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But for those who can't face three books of now-unofficial galactic history, here's a quick primer: Thrawn is one of the most dangerous threats to the galaxy, with a genius-level IQ, a capable fleet at his command, and a working knowledge of a sector of the galaxy almost unmapped by outsiders.
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Given how closely Rebels' creators kept with Thrawn's backstory, it'll be interesting to see if they bring in this particular bit of backstory along with them — and if it means the end of Grand Admiral Thrawn at the end of Rebels, rather than his original demise in the post Return of the Jedi era.
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Rebels and The Clone Wars have attracted considerable audiences on their own, and have been used to further expand the franchise, either by introducing elements from the now non-canon Expanded Universe such as Grand Admiral Thrawn, or brought in characters that we saw in some of the films, like Saw Gerrera from Rogue One.
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And from the full trailer for the finale, it seems the Rebels are as overmatched by the Imperial fleet as they are in Rogue One: The Star Wars Rebels season 3 finale airs on Saturday March 25 — and since the show has already been picked up for season 4, we doubt this is the last we've seen of Thrawn or his opponents.
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