Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 6.
The Big Picture
- Thrawn’s live-action appearance in Ahsoka is underwhelming and lacking in detail, especially compared to his menacing animated design in Star Wars Rebels.
- The lack of effort in the makeup and costume design for Thrawn undermines the character’s potential and diminishes the impact of his long-awaited live-action debut.
- The subpar execution of Thrawn’s appearance raises questions about whether he was necessary for the series and if his inclusion was driven by setting up future storylines rather than delivering a satisfying character portrayal.
Lars Mikkelsen‘s Grand General Thrawn made his long-awaited and highly-anticipated live-action appearance in Ahsoka, and the means of translating his animated character design over into the greater Disney+ universe is almost underwhelming. There’s something uncanny and unsettling about how Thrawn fares on-screen, and it calls greater attention to how disappointing this detrimental reveal came to be. Thrawn is undeniably a chilling villain when it comes to Mikkelsen’s apathetic and cold attitude, but his menacing demeanor is distracted by a makeup job that nearly looks as if his body’s been CGI’d or photoshopped. He looked just as threatening as he felt in Star Wars Rebels, and the effort to carry that same imposing visual over into live-action is having trouble selling itself.
Ahsoka‘s insistence that Thrawn’s grand reveal would be earth-shattering almost feels overcompensated when it comes to the final execution of his live-action design. Perhaps for some, seeing Thrawn in live-action is enough. The thought of watching Star Wars Rebels earn the mainstream appreciation it was deprived of for so long is a reward in itself, but it doesn’t exactly hurt to incorporate a bit more in terms of detailing and contouring when it comes to perfecting every detail of these characters. Part of what makes Star Wars so interesting is the vast creativity used to bring unique species to life, but the underwhelming attempt to match the striking blue complexion of Thrawn’s two-dimensional version could hint at a worrying trend of struggling to fully translate animated characters for live-action.
Thrawn’s Live-Action Look Lacks Depth and Detail in ‘Ahsoka’
Thrawn’s look in Ahsoka feels… somewhat flat. While his character design in Star Wars Rebels is fantastic, the live-action just doesn’t measure up. Just by looking at Thrawn in live-action, it’s easy to pinpoint fixes that are amendable by dedicating a little more time to keeping Lars Mikkelsen in the makeup chair. There is a lack of dimension in the face; he has faint, too-thin eyebrows and a lack of depth and contouring. Simply put, Mikkelsen feels copy-pasted into the show, which dials down how unnerving and effective the Chiss character was in Star Wars Rebels. The blandness in Thrawn’s finished look is emblematic of the larger issue in Ahsoka itself, with scenes often seeming too lackluster or subdued when compared to other properties in the franchise that have elected to use more vibrant color.
Look at Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels, then set him side-by-side with Mikkelsen in live-action. The animated version of the Grand Admiral has an appearance that’s both distinguished and fearsome. While it might not have been possible to achieve the exact same high-cheekboned, heavy-browed, menacing mug that could send a chill down any spine, and nailing down Thrawn’s signature red stare could have been a challenge in and of itself given the discomfort that accompanies full-sclera contact lenses, but it’s still strange not to see that same UV glow we’re used to.
Thrawn’s lackluster presentation in Ahsoka makes us question whether his appearance was really necessary in the series altogether, or whether he may have been shoehorned into this live-action project for the sake of setting up something bigger. Approving such an awkward-looking Thrawn after teasing this monumental character introduction as one of Ahsoka‘s main events is a bad move. Maybe Ahsoka being so dark and muted also applies to Thrawn’s look, and Mikkelsen’s performance so far manages to be both ominous and foreboding, but it doesn’t make sense as to why this Thrawn has been so scaled-down upon his return.
Not Every Animated Star Wars Character Should Be Brought to Live-Action
It’s been suggested that Ahsoka may have been better off as an animated feature, but that doesn’t mean that Star Wars should reach into its animated catalog and bring every character into live-action. Some concepts are best left untouched, and Thrawn’s unobtrusive stature in Ahsoka is another indication that Lucasfilm and Disney+ may have overestimated the success of translating animated Star Wars Rebels characters in live-action. Besides, Mikkelsen’s Grand General Thrawn isn’t the first Rebels villain that’s been chosen to play a role in Star Wars’ live-action Disney+ universe. Rupert Friend joined the Star Wars universe as the Grand Inquisitor in Obi-Wan Kenobi. In a similar vein to Thrawn’s reception, the Grand Inquisitor’s live-action character rendition was unimpressive when it came down to how it was executed. Much like Thrawn, the Grand Inquisitor was hard to take seriously as a villain, as his physicality and overall design failed to match his more sinister intentions.
It’s unfortunate that Thrawn’s initial live-action entrance in Star Wars was a bit of a letdown in terms of his appearance in Ahsoka. Perhaps he should have stayed animated, and the entire process of attempting to bring him into live-action could have been avoided altogether. There’s plenty to genuinely like about how Ahsoka has capitalized off of animated Star Wars media — such as Rosario Dawson‘s Ahsoka Tano becoming Ahsoka the White, or the World Between Worlds that featured a glimpse of Rebels — yet these moments are few and far between. The unequal distribution of design quality given to different characters has become more and more obvious as Star Wars ventures deeper into its latest era. Perhaps there’s still an opportunity for some final tweaks to be made — that is if Thrawn has an even bigger role to play in Dave Filoni‘s upcoming film intended to bring everything to a conclusion.
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Khushi Patel is a science fiction author who lives in Austin, Texas. She has published three novels, and her work has been praised for its originality and imagination. Khushi is a graduate of Rice University, and she has worked as a software engineer. She is a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America, and her books have been nominated for several awards.
