Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return puts the modern Star Wars canon timeline at high risk of major continuity issues. Thrawn, whose current incarnation debuted in Star Wars Rebels, is a major threat to the Rebellion and now the New Republic. While lacking Force powers, Thrawn is a tactical genius and an adept leader who inspires more loyalty among his underlings than most Imperial officers. With Thrawn’s reintroduction in Ahsoka preparing viewers for a larger role in coming Star Wars properties, the iconic villain may, unfortunately, wreak havoc on a timeline that is already plagued by continuity issues.
Grand Admiral Thrawn himself is originally from the Star Wars Legends timeline, the previous official Star Wars continuity until 2014. While far more niche than the modern Star Wars canon, Legends kept its timeline tidier, taking more care to keep its continuity consistent and using retcons to smooth out inevitable snarls. For better or worse, Legends had fewer continuity issues in 37 years than canon has had in under a decade, with the latter timeline frequently overwriting entire works and creating continuity issues that are too big to fix with retcons. Thrawn’s return risks continuing this problematic practice.
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Star Wars Has Confirmed A Time Of Peace Between Jakku & The First Order’s Debut
In the modern Star Wars canon, the Galactic Civil War ended roughly a year after Return of the Jedi. After a dramatic final stand against the New Republic on Jakku ended in a decisive Imperial defeat (with many survivors fleeing to the Unknown Regions), the two factions signed the Galactic Concordance, officially ending the war and leaving the minuscule official remainder of the Galactic Empire largely demilitarized and relegated to portions of the Inner Rim. For roughly 30 years between the original and sequel trilogies, the galaxy was defined by relative peace.
What ultimately broke this peace was the gradual emergence of the First Order, a military junta of surviving Imperials and their descendants who were supported by extremist politicians within the New Republic running interference. The First Order blatantly violated the Galactic Concordance, but the New Republic was unwilling to take the necessary measures against it, leading Leia Organa to form the Resistance, a pro-democracy paramilitary organization to keep the First Order in check. This led to a Cold War between the two factions that broke out into a full-scale war when the First Order destroyed the Hosnian system.
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s Return Risks Reigniting The Empire
Thrawn was reintroduced to the Star Wars franchise in Dave Filoni’s Rebels, reimagining him for the modern canon. Thrawn’s live-action debut was in Ahsoka, another TV series by Filoni. While undoubtedly a successful storyteller, Dave Filoni’s Star Wars properties are frequent sources of continuity errors, with Filoni himself echoing a sentiment comparable to Goerge Lucas’s dismissive attitude towards consistent continuity. Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7, Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, and Filoni’s episode of The Book of Boba Fett, have all overwritten established Star Wars canon materials.
Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return in Ahsoka threatens to break the established Star Wars canon timeline only further. Both The Mandalorian season 3 and Ahsoka tease that Thrawn’s reemergence will bring about the rebirth of the Empire and a new conflict with the New Republic. While Thrawn’s campaign in the Legends continuity worked because the Galactic Civil War continued for 15 years after Return of the Jedi, a comparable crisis in the modern canon timeline would be a major continuity contradiction. A new Thrawn campaign could be comparable to the wars with the First Order, contradicting the 30 years of peace.
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The Bigger Thrawn’s Threat, The Worse The Continuity Problems Become
Naturally, given Grand Admiral Thrawn’s iconic status and established threat level, the temptation to make him a comparable threat to the proper Galactic Empire and First Order’s forces may be irresistible. The problem is that the more profound Thrawn’s effect on the galaxy is, the worse he contradicts the established Star Wars canon continuity. Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn trilogy of novels breathed new life into the Star Wars franchise, so to have a loose adaptation of it in the modern canon may be what recent Star Wars TV shows and the upcoming The Mandalorian & Grogu movie are building up to.
For Star Wars canon to avoid further continuity problems, Thrawn would not be able to become the sort of galaxy-threatening menace that he has been built up to be in recent Star Wars properties. Thrawn’s attempt to rebuild the Empire would need to fail before it becomes a full-scale conflict with the New Republic or, at the very least, be partially or entirely unnoticed by the New Republic and its citizens. All these scenarios put heavy limitations on Thrawn’s future in upcoming Star Wars properties, but such constraints would necessitate more creativity and care for maintaining a coherent continuity.
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- The Mandalorian , Andor , Obi-Wan Kenobi , The Book of Boba Fett , Ahsoka , The Acolyte , Star Wars: Skeleton Crew , Lando , Star Wars: The Clone Wars , Star Wars Rebels , Star Wars: The Bad Batch , Star Wars: Resistance , Star Wars: Young Jedi Adventures , Star Wars: Visions
