The internet absolutely loves the intimidating blue character. He might be the most popular fictional blue guy since Papa Smurf himself!
He's the chief antagonist of Heir to the Empire and it's quite clear from the first few paragraphs in which he features that he's the real deal.
Inspired by this belated introduction to the big blue Chiss character, we thought we'd present some interesting facts and trivia about him.
- Timothy Zahn, the author who created this beloved character described Thrawn as follows: “He’s a clever villain. People like reading about clever, interesting opponents to our heroes. People who are able to outthink, outmaneuver as well as outfight. Ultimately the heroism of the hero is measured by the villainy or power of the villain and with Thrawn, I wanted something different than Force using Vader or Palpatine. Somebody who doesn’t have Luke’s Force Powers, but can run him around in a maze whenever he really wants to.”
- His real name is a real mouthful. It's “Mitth'raw'nuruodo” and Thrawn is a shortening of his full name
- While he makes his debut in Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire novel, Thrawn has actually appeared in eight novels, and several graphic novels, and he's turned up in a few video games.
- His appearance in season three of Star Wars Rebels marks the first occasion that an extended universe character has been placed in the new formal Star Wars canon. We believe that the second character to get this kind of treatment was Saw in Rogue One, who went from Star Wars: The Clone Wars to the big screen, where he was played brilliantly by Forest Whitaker.
Courtesy of Lucasfilm - Thrawn's species is Chiss and he's a male officer of the Chiss Ascendancy. All members of the Chiss species are human-like in their physical appearance, apart from their distinctive blue skin and red eyes.
- The name “Coruscant” was originally used by Timothy Zahn. George Lucas was going to include the capital world of Had Abbadon in Return of the Jedi but adopted Zahn's name for Imperial Center when presenting the planet in the special edition and prequel movies.
- Zahn has said that Thrawn's character is a composite of various historical and fictional personalities, including Erwin Rommel, Robert E. Lee, Hannibal Barca, Alexander the Great, and Sherlock Holmes. Some of those names are the greatest military leaders of history, which is reflected in Thrawn's incredible military mind and tactical abilities.
- The Secret History of Star Wars by Michael Kaminski – an unauthorized commentary on the development of the scripts for all six Star Wars movies – credits the Thrawn trilogy with reigniting the general public's interest in the Star Wars franchise.
Paul Rose Jr is the Editor in Chief of Wealth of Geeks & manages the Associated Press program for The Insiders network. He has worked as TV News Producer, Forensic Analyst, and Train Conductor, among many other things. He’s the former TV Editor for InfuzeMag and owns more books, DVDs, and comics than most people have seen in their lifetimes. When he’s not writing or editing on Wealth of Geeks, he exercises his creative muscle writing screenplays and acting in film and television in Los Angeles, CA.