Thrawn is expected to be the main villain of Star Wars’ Mandoverse, but a fan theory suggests that Ezra Bridger is actually going to be the saga’s next big bad. As Star Wars’ future on the big screen is still a mystery following the end of the Skywalker Saga, the franchise has shifted its efforts towards a TV format with several Disney+ Star Wars shows. Between The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and upcoming Ahsoka, the Star Wars live-action series are slowly coming together for what could be a huge event – one that could conclude storylines that began in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.
Despite being a standalone show, The Mandalorian quickly started to embrace the lore and the characters from the Star Wars animated series. Apart from Easter eggs and callbacks, The Mandalorian season 1 also introduced the Darksaber, first seen in Clone Wars, in its final episode. From then on, cameos from animated characters now portrayed in live-action, such as Bo-Katan and Ahsoka, became common, and The Mandalorian went from a small-scale story to the setup of something bigger. After Ahsoka mentioned in The Mandalorian season 2 she was looking for Thrawn; it became clear that the storyline set up in the Star Wars Rebels finale would be carried onto live-action, either on Ahsoka or on a possible future team-up show.
At the end of Star Wars Rebels, Ezra and the rest of the Rebellion managed to stop Thrawn from bombing Lothal. However, to ensure that no one could ever rescue Thrawn, Ezra made a random jump to hyper-space abord in the same ship as the villain. With Ezra’s whereabouts completely unknown, Ahsoka teamed up with Sabine Wren to fulfill her promise to Bridger of eventually finding him. While the most obvious conclusion to that storyline would have Thrawn as a sort of Star Wars’ Thanos, who would cause heroes like Luka, Ahsoka, and Mando to team up with forces of the New Republic to stop him, one fan theory (via Reddit) believes Star Wars will flip expectations and have Ezra as the villain instead. Granted, Ezra was a hero in Star Wars Rebels until the very end, but more than ten years after his friends saw him for the last time, Kanan’s apprentice could now be a very different person.
Ezra Has Already Flirted With The Dark Side
Force users being tempted by the dark side’s powers in Star Wars is quite common, and the same thing has happened to Ezra – with Ezra even using the dark side a couple of times previously. The first was during one of the many fights against the Grand Inquisitor, in which Ezra completely lost control over the Force and achieved a level of power that scarred even Kanan. It only got worse after Ezra met an ancient Darth Maul, who talked the padawan into helping him. Maul won Ezra’s trust, and together, they managed to retrieve a Sith Holocron and activate a Sith battle station in Malachor. Even after Maul revealed his true intentions and almost killed Kanan, Ezra continued to access the Sith Holocron to achieve more power. Ahsoka was presumably dead, and Ezra wanted to ensure he would never let another friend get hurt again. That idea alone very much resembles what drove Anakin Skywalker to become Darth Vader.
How Ezra Could Become Star Wars’ Next Big Bad
One of the biggest mysteries in Star Wars to date is what happened to Ezra and Thrawn and where exactly the two of them are now. Given that their destination was completely random, Ezra and Thrawn could be in any corner of the galaxy, even in the Unknown Regions. It is possible that the duo found themselves in a hostile environment in which they are struggling to survive. Both Ezra and Thrawn are survivors and have faced fought for their lives before, so they would know how to overcome difficult situations.
The problem is Ezra might have been forced to make questionable decisions and cross some lines to survive. Not only that, but during his time with Thrawn, Ezra could have learned about the many other threats that exist in the galaxy beyond the Empire, such as the Chiss. Thrawn does not see himself as a villain, and, at least according to the Thrawn novels, he is indeed not a villain in the same sense as Vader or the Emperor. That same moral duality could be carried over onto Ezra, who might have in Thrawn found a sort of master figure. Therefore, by the time Ahsoka finally finds Ezra, he might no longer need saving and could be on a mission of his own – one that somehow opposed that of the heroes.
Why Ezra Being A Villain Wouldn’t Hurt His Character
Ezra never fully embraced the dark side like Anakin did and eventually gave up on the Sith Holocron. That said, Star Wars Rebels season 3 proved that Ezra was ready to do whatever it took for him to accomplish his goals, which were always noble. However, wanting to make things right at any cost made many characters in the Star Wars canon walk down the wrong path, which is an even bigger problem with Force-sensitives. Ezra would never become a villain in the sense of wanting to cause destruction and pain for no reason at all, but it would not be out of character for him to take on extreme measures, especially now that he no longer has Kanan to mentor him.
The death of Kanan, the near-destruction of Lothal, and the ten years lost somewhere in the galaxy with Grand Admiral Thrawn could have turned Ezra Bridger into Star Wars’ next main villain. Four years after the Star Wars Rebels finale, the characters, and storylines introduced by the show are now crucial to the future of Star Wars – at least on television. Whether the “Ezra becomes a villain” theory is correct or not, audiences will soon know more when the Ahsoka series airs.
