Thrawn As Star Wars’ Next Villain Can Finally Justify Lucas’ Original Title

screenrant.com:

With Grand Admiral Thrawn being set up by Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to be the overarching antagonist of the New Republic era, perhaps he can finally justify Lucas’ original title, Star Wars. More specifically, Thrawn's nature as a character, that being one of high military intellect, skillful battle planning and thorough research—a bit like a fascist Sherlock Holmes—is bound to have a different set of consequences for the protagonists. Much in the same way that The Clone Wars brought us large-scale war in animation, Thrawn will be the perfect vehicle not only for a convincing antagonist but to bring all-out galactic warfare to live-action. 

Grand Admiral Thrawn was first brought to the small screen by Star Wars Rebels, and despite Thrawn's ambiguous ending, we now know Thrawn is still at large in the New Republic era thanks to The Mandalorian season 2. In fact, it’s seeming more likely that Ahsoka will replace Luke Skywalker in Thrawn's story this time around, as based on recent storylines, it would appear that Ahsoka is in pursuit. While in Legends continuity, Luke remained the franchise's main protagonist against Thrawn, Disney's modern canon has set Ahsoka up for this role, and with Thrawn, no doubt consolidating his power base in the background of the Disney+ shows, he’s sure to jump into the foreground sooner rather than later. 

Related: Star Wars: Casting A Live-Action Thrawn Trilogy

Thrawn sets himself apart from the rest of Star Wars’ roster of villains for a number of reasons. Perhaps most notably are his personal motivations—unlike characters such as Darth Sidious, it is most definitely not evil, the Sith, nor pure conquest that drives him. Judging from the current attempts by Star Warsto adapt Timothy Zahn's