Hello there! Before we continue I kindly ask you to consider showing your support and appreciation for my work by tipping me via my Ko-Fi page. Tips are quite rare around these parts, but I assure you no matter how big or small, each tip is deeply appreciated.
In 2019, The Mandalorian debuted on the small screen, acting as one of the sole reasons to sign up to Disney’s streaming service, Disney+. The series was created by Jon Favreau, who worked closely with Star Wars: Rebels creator, Dave Filoni, to bring the vision and story that Favreau had to life, and did so to great success. In the years that followed, Favreau and Filoni wrote follow up seasons to the hit series, and began expanding the world during that time period, creating spin-off series such as The Book of Boba Fett, Ahsoka and Skeleton Crew. Every series that Favreau and Filoni are behind during this time period are interconnected and is building towards an exciting crossover event which will arrive in the form of a movie which is being written and directed by Dave Filoni himself which was announced at Star Wars Celebration last month.
Currently little is known about the upcoming crossover film, which for the purpose of this article will be referred to in this article as the MandoVerse movie. During Celebration, Filoni remained tight lipped on the flick, simply revealing that it focuses on the conflict between the New Republic and the Imperial remnant, but that it could feature unspecified characters from across the MandoVerse and perhaps even past series and legends. Though not confirmed, it seems as if characters such as Din Djarin, Ahsoka Tano and the Ghost Crew will play an integral part in the upcoming event film. Based on the Imperial Shadow Council revealing they’re being led by Thrawn in the third season of The Mandalorian, along with Thrawn acting as the main threat of the Ahsoka series and based on what we know of that show, it seems obvious that by the time the MandoVerse movie comes around, that Grand Admiral Thrawn would be the biggest threat to the galaxy and likely the primary antagonist of the feature.
Recently Empire Magazine have started releases excerpts from their upcoming Secret Invasion issue that releases later this week, and within the issue, the magazine has interviews with various creatives and stars of upcoming Star Wars projects, one of which being Dave Filoni. During the chat with Empire, Filoni confirmed the speculation that Grand Admiral Thrawn is the true big bad of the MandoVerse time period. Filoni says:
“Definitely, in my eyes. When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir to the Empire, Thrawn became this very iconic villain because he was very different than anything we’d seen before. He wasn’t another helmet wearing, lightsaber wielding bad guy, you know? There’s a lot of pull to make characters like Vader because it’s so iconic. But the boldness that Tim had was to make somebody that wasn’t like that, that didn’t have those abilities, but could fight in a different way. In the words Star Wars, war is a part of it, him being a Grand Admiral, a leader, a military strategist, a Moriarty archetype, someone that will out-think you, out-strategise you – that really resonated. He’s a critical player in this time period. We’re fortunate to have that character and fortunate enough to have Lars [Mikkelsen] playing him.”
Filoni’s comments don’t come as much of a surprise as fans have assumed since the reveal in The Mandalorian season three and what’s known about Ahsoka that the Grand Admiral is the biggest threat to the galaxy during this time period, but it is however nice to get confirmation from the executive producer of these various shows and the director of the upcoming MandoVerse movie which is rumoured to be aiming for a December 2026 release.
The latest issue of Empire Magazine releases later this week and Ahsoka releases exclusively sometime in August on Disney+.
Thank you for reading the article and if you enjoyed your read, or if you’re a regular reader of Bespin Bulletin then I kindly ask if you’d consider showing your support and appreciation by tipping me via my Ko-Fi page here, each tip is deeply appreciated. You can also listen to the latest episode of our podcast, BOB The Podcast, at the bottom of this page and on all good podcast services (new episodes release on Thursdays) and you if you’re not already doing so, follow me on Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Hive, and Mastodon.
