Lars Mikkelsen Claims He Did Not Receive Offer To Play Live-Action Thrawn
Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen is dodging rumors that he will be turning blue in the Star Wars universe anytime soon. After voicing the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the last two seasons of Star Wars: Rebels, rumors have abounded over the past couple of years that he will be transitioning into live-action in the new Ahsoka series.
However, in a new interview with Express.co.uk, the actor said that, while he’s aware of what the Internet is saying, he has not been offered the live-action role. When asked if he’s aware of the ongoing fan campaign for him to play the role in live-action, he said that he is, and when asked if he would like to do it, he simply said:
“Well, I haven’t had the offer. But, yes, sure.”
Lars Mikkelsen and the Liam Neeson effect
Whether or not Mikkelsen is playing with us, we don’t know yet. His statement is very reminiscent of what Liam Neeson said about playing Qui-Gon in Obi-Wan Kenobi back in 2021, but with a major difference… Qui-Gon’s involvement, as minor as it was, in Ewan McGregor’s series was all but guaranteed, given the basic story pitch and the overall timeline of events. And if they were going to have the character around, it wouldn’t make any sense not to approach Neeson, especially given the years-long fan campaign to have him back in the role.
As explained later, Thrawn’s appearance in Ahsoka is also more than likely, but the character has not appeared in live-action before, and there is precedent for Lucasfilm offering these roles to the people who voiced them in animation (see Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze). But there’s also precedent for them going to other people (look no further than Ahsoka Tano, played by Rosario Dawson).
There have been multiple reports on whether or not it will be Lars Mikkelsen playing Thrawn, and some of them have even been contradictory. From Cinelinx‘s Jordan Maison saying it might not be Mikkelsen, to then The Playlist‘s Christopher Marc saying it is him, to then Maison reaffirming it. Now, the actor is saying no, so it’s definitely all up in the air at the moment. We might get more answers during Star Wars Celebration, where the first public trailer for Ahsoka will likely be released.
How Thrawn ties into Ahsoka
While not confirmed, it is a foregone conclusion that Grand Admiral Thrawn will appear in Ahsoka, and he will likely have a pivotal role. The episode from The Mandalorian season 2 where Rosario Dawson made her debut as the Togruta essentially served as a backdoor pilot for her spin-off series (announced just two weeks later), plus the character namedropped Thrawn during her confrontation with Morgan Elsbeth.
Lucasfilm has confirmed that Sabine Wren is in the new series, played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and during the panel at Star Wars Celebration, Dave Filoni strongly hinted at a live-action reunion of the Star Wars: Rebels team. Hera was featured in the 60-second trailer previewed to audiences there (played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead if the latest rumor is correct); Chopper made a cameo at the panel (surely for no reason at all); and The Inspection actor Eman Esfandi is reportedly playing Ezra Bridger. All signs point to Ahsoka being a fifth season of Rebels, now in live-action; the animated finale closed with Ezra and Thrawn being thrown into outer space, and years after the Battle of Endor, Ahsoka (The White) recruited Sabine to go look for them.
Filoni has hinted this scene may have happened after the events of The Mandalorian, setting the following chain of events: after being rescued by Ezra through the World Between Worlds, Ahsoka learned about what happened in the Battle for Lothal and spent years looking for hints about Ezra and/or Thrawn’s whereabouts. She ended up on Corvus, outside a fortified village where someone connected to Thrawn, and to a larger threat in the Outer Rim, is located. With the help of Din Djarin, she is able to enter the place and face off against Morgan Elsbeth. After retrieving the information, she went looking for Sabine as we saw in the final moments of Rebels, and then Hera followed soon. Whether Zeb and Alexsandr Kallus will also join the crew, we don’t know yet. But we are expecting the Ahsoka series to be the culminating event of not just Rebels, but everything Dave Filoni has been setting up in Star Wars animation over the years.
No release date has been set for Ahsoka, but we should expect it sometime this summer on Disney Plus.
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
