Fans gasped when Rosario Dawson’s main character mentioned Grand Admiral Thrawn’s (Lars Mikkelsen) return “as heir to the Empire” in the first Ahsoka trailer, which has now been released. Every old-school Star Wars fan has always wished to hear those words, but they never actually believed they would ever be said. They bring to mind a time that is long since passed, when our beloved brand expanded past the Original Trilogy mostly through books and recounted tales of what was formerly known as the Expanded Universe but is now merely referred to as Legends.
The novel trilogy that launched the Expanded Universe, presenting tales with the Original Trilogy heroes set years after Return of the Jedi, has the exact same name as Ahsoka Tano’s phrase. The Heir to the Empire novels solidified its author, Timothy Zahn, as one of the best Star Wars authors while also maintaining the public’s interest in the brand in the early 1990s, when nobody could have predicted it would become any more popular than it already was. At least some of the characteristics that made the novels so well-known now appear to be present in Ahsoka, a new Disney+ series that will premiere in August.
Why Is ‘Heir to the Empire’ So Special?
Over ten years after Return of the Jedi came to a conclusion, Zahn’s trilogy’s first novel was published in 1992. Heir to the Empire surprised fans by demonstrating that the Star Wars universe could be expanded and that new stories starring Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Leia Organa (Carrie Fisher), and Han Solo (Harrison Ford) were only a few pages away. At the time, despite the fact that Star Wars was already well-known, no one had imagined there could be more to its story. They are known as the Thrawn Trilogy, and they were the first works to demonstrate the Expanded Universe’s ability to expand the franchise beyond the big screen.
The plot was both straightforward enough to grab anyone’s interest and intricate enough to keep readers turning the pages. The remnants of the Imperial Fleet come together under the command of Grand Admiral Mitth’raw’nuruodo, also known as Thrawn, a few years after the fall of the Empire. One of the few non-humans in the vast military system of the Empire, he took it upon himself to preserve Emperor Palpatine’s (Ian McDiarmid) vision. Even the Emperor, who deployed his Seventh Fleet away from Endor when the Rebels struck, admired him for his tactical brilliance.
Thrawn is a fantastic antagonist in addition to being a really captivating person. Being one of only twelve Grand Admirals in the Imperial Navy—and the lone Chiss in a Human setting—would have been enough to impress anyone. Yet Thrawn is also passionate about learning about people and their traditions, particularly via art. It’s amazing to watch him do it, but he can tell a lot about a species’ way of life by examining its artistic manifestations. He poses a threat to practically every system in the cosmos because of these two characteristics since he could easily understand and control their populations.
And in the Thrawn Trilogy, he came dangerously close to capturing the galaxy while devising strategies to eliminate all of our heroes, notably Luke and Leia. Joruus C’baoth, a powerful Jedi Master clone who had been long deceased, was found by Thrawn. Palpatine built C’baoth to guard his Mount Tantiss warehouse and cloning facility on Wayland, but C’baoth had always yearned to have apprentices of his own. C’baoth didn’t require much persuasion because Leia was carrying twins (yes, twins) and Luke needed direction. Ultimately, C’baoth’s madness and being betrayed by his personal bodyguard, Rukh, were what Thrawn had defeated.
How Can ‘Ahsoka’ Adapt ‘Heir to the Empire’?
Although Ahsoka may have said it, the Thrawn Trilogy cannot be faithfully adapted because the Disney-owned canon is currently in a completely different state and the Original Trilogy heroes are not living the same lives as their Expanded Universe counterparts. Additionally, the Star Wars Rebels cast opposes Thrawn in the new canon, and they will attempt to stop him this time. Despite this, the trailer provided numerous suggestions as to how it might include aspects from the books.
The very idea of having Thrawn return after years of absence is the first. The Grand Admiral was last seen in the canonical timeline launching into hyperspace to an unknown destination. Jedi Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) snatched Thrawn’s flagship, the Star Destroyer Chimera, and used the Force to communicate with the purrgil so that the entire crew could disappear. Thrawn was only able to return now because of this. He could even assume the role despite the fact that his status as the “heir to the Empire” may not be formal because of his respectful connection with both Emperor Palpatine and even Darth Vader (James Earl Jones). Thrawn is one among the select few who was aware that Vader and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) were the same individual.
A Force-user enemy is yet another aspect of the Thrawn Trilogy. The Dark Side fighter Baylon (Ray Stevenson), who has his own apprentice named Shin Hati, is introduced to us in the video (Ivanna Sakhno). Baylon seems to be an interesting Joruus C’baoth equivalent, though we can’t be sure just yet. In the books, C’baoth creates Luuke Skywalker, a clone of Luke after failing to persuade Luke to join him (yes, the Expanded Universe was wild). What seems to be incredibly coincidental is the fact that cloning is a reoccurring topic in Star Wars after The Rise of Skywalker, with Wayland and Mount Tantiss even declared canon again in the animated series The Bad Batch. We now know that Baylon is malevolent, that he collaborates with Thrawn, and that he has a blonde pupil who appears to be just as quick as Luke. The future?
We may anticipate at least a few allusions to the Thrawn Trilogy as series creator Dave Filoni has acknowledged that he sought advice from Timothy Zahn for Ahsoka. It would be a shame to leave out all the fascinating details from those books, such as the Force-resistant lizards and the entire species devoted to preserving Thrawn.
