Inside The 30-Year History Of Grand Admiral Thrawn
Timothy Zahn should be a familiar name to any Star Wars fan. If you are not familiar with that name, then you definitely know his work. Among other things, he is perhaps best known for creating the character of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Zahn released the first book in what would later be dubbed “The Thrawn Trilogy” in May of 1991. The trilogy consisted of Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command. The series was an excellent return to the series for fans, and it took the classic characters on new adventures long before the sequel trilogy. Not to mention that it introduced one of the greatest non-Sith villains in the Star Wars universe. For the 30th anniversary of the series, Timothy Zahn spoke with Star Wars Insider about the legacy of his books and how it all started.
Grand Admiral Thrawn is one of the most sinister and intimidating characters in Star Wars. He is also one of the few Legends characters that have been able to firmly cement himself in canon with his appearances in Star Wars Rebels. In the interview, Zahn talked about what made him such a good antagonist in Star Wars and how he reached that point. He said,
“I wanted to capture the Star Wars feeling, but I did not want to go over the same territory that George Lucas had already gone over, so that meant no superweapon, no Death Star, no Darth Vader-type, no Emperor-type.”
He wanted someone who could inspire loyalty in contrast to how the Emperor and Vader ruled by manipulation. It was in stepping away from those tropes that had brought so much success to the Star Wars films, that Zahn found the perfect antagonist to pick up from where the movies left off.
“He needed to be a strategic and tactical genius, so that they’d know they had a good chance of winning. He cared about his troops. He was willing to accept good suggestions from subordinates. And then, finally, since we did not see a lot of aliens in the Empire, I wanted to make him a non-human, on the grounds that, if he got to be a Grand Admiral, he had to be something very special.”
Few people ever get a chance to play around creatively in the Star Wars universe, and even fewer people get to create long-lasting characters and stories that fans love and cling to for years. Zahn also spoke a little about how he initially got the job. He said it happened from an “out-of-the-blue phone call.” His agent told him that Bantam and Lucasfilm had made a deal to publish a trilogy of Star Wars books, which took place after Return of the Jedi. At the time, he had no idea that new Star Wars movies were even being planned, so it came as an extra shock to him. They discussed the possibility of the series for a while, and Zahn said he would return with an answer the next day. Zahn recalled the initial nervousness that he felt before accepting. He said,
“It was a chance to jumpstart my career in a way that I’d never thought possible, but it was also a chance for me to fall flat on my face in front of millions of Star Wars fans. On top of that, I had never written a trilogy before: a single story told in three volumes, in 300,000 words. But by the next morning, I had enough of a germ of an idea that I thought it could be possible. The big question was whether I could capture the atmosphere of Star Wars, but I knew, I needed to at least try. I went ahead and said yes.”
Timothy Zahn is a fantastic writer, and he got the chance to return to Thrawn recently in canon with a new Thrawn series. As said before, Thrawn even appeared in Rebels, and he has been hinted at in the newest season of The Mandalorian. Zahn’s newest Thrawn book, Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy: Greater Good, was released on April 27th of this year, and Zahn's full interview can be read in Star Wars Insider #202. Here is to 30 more years of Timothy Zahn and Grand Admiral Thrawn!
Source(s): StarWars.com