Dave Filoni Teases His Plans For Star Wars Following Disney+’s ‘Ahsoka’ Series

December 22, 2023 ·

John F. Trent

(L-R): Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham) and Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) with Night Troopers in Lucasfilm's STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Newly appointed Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm Dave Filoni recently teased his plans for Star Wars in the wake of the conclusion of the Disney+ series, Star Wars: Ahsoka.

Speaking with Empire, Filoni detailed that it’s a possibility that Captain Pellaeon, who was Grand Admiral Thrawn’s right hand man in the original Timothy Zahn novels and was recently reintroduced in The Mandalorian Season 3 after a brief cameo in Star Wars Rebels, will likely reunite with Thrawn.

Filoni said, “We set up Captain Pellaeon in The Mandalorian, and that’s a character that goes with Thrawn, so I’d love to see the two of them together.”

(Clockwise from front left): Gilad Pellaeon (Xander Berkeley), Warlord (Hemky Madera), Warlord (Marco Khan), Warlord (Ron Bottitta), Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito), Warlord (Jonny Coyne), Warlord (Jodi Long), Brendol Hux (Brian Gleeson) and Warlord (Imelda Corcora) in Lucasfilm’s THE MANDALORIAN, season three, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

In the penultimate episode of Season 3, Pellaeon is part of the Shadow Council of Imperial leaders that advises the council to keep a low profile in order to not draw the New Republic’s attention to their true strength.

He says, “If we are perceived as anything other than a group of unorganized remnant warlords, the New Republic increase their efforts to hunt us down.”

(L-R, front): Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham) with Night Troopers in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Not only does he advise the Imperial warlords to keep a low profile, he also cautions that any action the warlords take should not come until Grand Admiral Thrawn returns.

He states, “That strength should not be wasted. Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return will herald in the reemergence of our military and provide Commandant Hux enough time to deliver on Project Necromancer.”

While Pellaeon offered caution and patience, not everyone in the Shadow Council concurred showing a potential split among the Imperial warlords as many of them favored their own personal ambitions to enrich themselves in the short term.

This divide among the Imperial warlords on the Shadow Council is something that might be explored moving forward as well. Lars Mikkelsen, who plays Thrawn, told Empire that Thrawn is planning to “straighten out all the others and tidy up the show. ”

He added, “I could imagine something in terms of a power play within the Empire.”

As far as who Thrawn and the Imperials might face off against once he’s tidied up shup, Filoni shared, “His foil throughout Rebels was Hera. Pitting the two generals against one another is something that I find interesting.”

Filoni previously detailed to Empire Magazine that Thrawn would be the big bad of the New Republic era.

He was asked, “Do you see Thrawn as the big bad of this New Republic era? Is that how you’re positioning him?”

Filoni responded, “Definitely, in my eyes. When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir To The Empire, Thrawn became this very iconic villain, because he was different than anything we’d seen before. He wasn’t another helmet-wearing, lightsaber-wielding bad guy, you know?”

“There’s a lot of pull to make characters that are like Vader, because it is so iconic,” he continued. “But the boldness that Tim had was to make somebody that wasn’t like that, that didn’t have those abilities, but could fight in a different way.”

Filoni added, “In the words Star Wars, the ‘war’ part of it — him being a Grand Admiral, a leader, a military strategist, a Moriarty archetype, someone that will out-think you, out-strategise you — that really resonated. He’s a critical player in this time period. We’re fortunate to have that character, and fortunate to have Lars [Mikkelsen] playing him.”

Grand Admiral Thrawn in Heir to the Empire #1 (1995), Dark Horse Comics

Filoni also shared he plans to mine Zahn’s Heir to the Empire novels for the story of Thrawn in Disney Star Wars, “There are a lot of factors, especially in playing with a character like [novelist] Timothy Zahn’s Thrawn — I want to make sure that I’m honouring ideas that Tim had, so I want to see what’s [in his books] for the story.”

“In The Bad Batch, there is actually some crossover with the book Heir To The Empire in the military base of Tantiss,” he relayed. “So there are little things along the way that I’ve built across different mediums, all in preparation for things that come later.”

(L-R): Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham), Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) with Night Troopers in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

What do you make of these teases for the future of Disney Star Wars?

NEXT: Ahsoka’ Creator Dave Filoni Explains How “Everyone Can Become A Jedi And Everyone Can Not Become Jedi”