After years of waiting, fan-favorite Star Wars Rebels villain Grand Admiral Thrawn is finally set to make his live-action debut in Ahsoka. But according to the show’s creator, there were some bumps in the road when it came to nailing Thrawn’s live-action look.

The recent Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 brought fans together with the best of Star Wars creatives, including writers, actors, directors, and visual effects artists from all corners of the world. Several important announcements were made at the event, including confirmation of not one but three new Star Wars movies, a Season 3 renewal for Star Wars: The Bad Batch, and new teaser trailers for upcoming projects—one of them being Dave Filoni’s highly-anticipated Ahsoka series.

Starring Rosario Dawson, Ahsoka will center around the titular ex-Jedi as she sets out on a daring journey to find her long-lost friend, Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), as well as a formidable enemy following the events of Star Wars Rebels. It looks like she’ll seek out the help of the Ghost crew along the way, with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) set to star in the show. Garazeb “Zeb” Orrelios’ (Steve Blum) presence in the story also seems imminent after his surprising live-action debut in Season 3 of The Mandalorian.
Check out the official teaser trailer for Disney+’s Ahsoka below:
With so many characters making the leap to live-action in Ahsoka, it’s no wonder that Lucasfilm’s production team felt the pressure to get each character’s design right. And although Lucasfilm has some of the best and brightest minds employed within their ranks, creators were sent into a tizzy when it came time to design the show’s live-action big bad: Grand Admiral Thrawn.
At Star Wars Celebration, it was confirmed that Thrawn’s voice actor, Lars Mikkelsen, would reprise his role for the Ahsoka solo series. In the trailer, fans got a first glimpse of the back of Thrawn’s head, leaving many to wonder what his full-body appearance will look like.

In animation, Thrawn is extremely recognizable thanks to his fluorescent blue skin and menacing red eyes. This design posed a challenge for Lucasfilm’s production team, who endlessly debated Thrawn’s looks before finally landing on the final product—specifically when it came to the shade of Trawn’s skin. Filoni recently opened up about the struggles of bringing the character to life in live action, saying, “Blue is a tricky one. And there are a lot of blue characters out there now.”

Although Filoni wanted to recreate Thrawn’s animated form as accurately as possible, while speaking with The Wrap, he admitted that he didn’t want “to lean too far back into animation” when it came to designing the character for live-action, explaining:
If the blue is very strong, it almost starts to lean too far back into animation. So you have to find a blue that is complex, that has multiple layers to it, that has transparencies and a sense of blood and skin.
Of course, this isn’t the first time a blue-skinned alien has received the live-action treatment in Star Wars. Recurring Star Wars: The Clone Wars character, legendary bounty hunter Cad Bane (Corey Burton), made a cameo in The Book of Boba Fett, whose live-action look was somewhat divisive amongst Star Wars fans for being a slightly different shade of blue than his animated version.

The challenge extended to other Ahsoka characters, with Hera’s green skin and of course, Ahsoka’s siena shade, leading Filoni to ask why he took on such a difficult task in the first place:
We went round and round on the blue! And the green. And the orange! Why did I do all these things? I could’ve made my life so much simpler!

From what fans have seen so far, Filoni’s efforts certainly paid off. And after having to spend hours in makeup chairs testing different hues of face paint, it’s safe to say the actors were equally as relieved when the production team finally landed on a color.
For now, fans can look forward to seeing Lars Mikkelson retake the mantle of Thrawn in live-action when Ahsoka lands on Disney+ in August 2023.
Are you excited to see Thrawn’s live-action look in Ahsoka? Let us know in the comments below.