Will Grand Admiral Thrawn appear in Star Wars: Ahsoka?

With yet another Star Wars: Ahsoka casting announcement, Star Wars fans are buzzing about Ray Stevenson’s role in the show.

It’s pretty much guaranteed he will not play the villain many were expecting. TV Line clarified that Stevenson would not be playing Thrawn, but a different “villainous admiral.” This confirms this specific actor will not be playing Thrawn, but reports continue to circulate that the Chiss antagonist will be a central point of the Ahsoka series. And fans have a pretty good reason to believe those rumors.

Star Wars fans were shocked in Mandalorian Season 2 not just by Ahsoka Tano’s appearance but also by these lines she spoke during the episode: “Where is your master? Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?”

Thrawn was last seen during the season finale of Star Wars: Rebels, where he disappeared with Ezra Bridger and presumably hasn’t been seen again by the time we see Ahsoka again in The Mandalorian.

That finale’s epilogue also revealed that Ahsoka and Sabine were about to embark on a quest to find Ezra — and it’s assumed that wherever Ezra is, Thrawn is also, and vice versa. If Ahsoka is hunting for answers, she is likely seeking out any connections she can find to Ezra. If someone knows where Thrawn is, she might be able to find the missing Jedi.

It’s possible the Ahsoka series could be built around the premise of finding Thrawn without ever showing him on-screen. It would actually make for a much more suspenseful and mysterious story if Thrawn was the prize Ahsoka and her team spent the entire show searching for — a faceless entity that serves more symbolically than literally.

What if, in trying desperately to locate Thrawn, Ahsoka accidentally makes other, much more important discoveries about the galaxy … and herself?

Star Wars: Ahsoka is expected to release on Disney+ sometime in 2023.