How a 10-Year-Old Tweet About Thrawn Took Twitter By Storm

Sometimes we become witness to events that have a profound and often lasting effect on many people (and might lead to the saying “Where were you, when…?”). For many Star Wars fans, October 30, 2012 was such a day.

I remember; I was on my commute to work, checking my regular news sites on my cell phone, when I read that George Lucas had sold his company for 4.05 billion dollars and that Disney was going to make Episodes VII – IX. Needless to say, I did not get much work done that day, as I spent hours checking all kinds of websites to learn as much as possible about this exciting new era for Star Wars.

But let’s turn back the clock even further, to the beginning of the '90s, when I discovered Timothy Zahn’s novel Heir to The Empire in a bookstore. This was as the end of the so called “dark times,” when Star Wars had pretty much fallen off the map of popular culture, after it had become obvious that there wouldn't be any more movies in the far away galaxy during the second half of the '80s. And now there suddenly was a book that actually continued the Skywalker saga after Return of The Jedi. This must be the Episode VII that I had been waiting for since 1983, and the release of the subsequent movie had to be imminent. A few years later, it became clear that the Thrawn Trilogy (consisting of Heir to The Empire, Dark Force Rising, and The Last Command) would not be made into Episodes VII – IX, but stay in its printed format (although there now actually is a multi-chapter animated fan film of Heir to The Empire available on YouTube).

Why am I telling you this?

Well, Jon Ossoff, Senator-Elect of Georgia sent out the following tweet:

Will it be the Thrawn Trilogy? #starwars #episode7

He tweeted this on October 31, 2012, one day after the sale of Lucasfilm and the plan for the sequel trilogy were made public!

It is not that common that someone whose profession is far outside the realm of show-business makes a public comment about something from show business (in this case Star Wars). And even if he or she does, it is often just a reference that has found its way into public consciousness, like “May the Force be with you!”.

But what Mr. Ossoff had tweeted went far beyond that. He clearly knew what the Thrawn Trilogy was and that it was regarded by many fans as a valid and possible blueprint for Episode VII and its sequels. As surprising as Mr. Ossoff’s knowledge of the Expanded Universe may be, his tweet is more than eight years old, so why bother now?

Well, shortly after the sale of Lucasfilm to Disney, the EU was classified as “Legends,” as the company didn’t want to burden themselves with literally hundreds of novels and comic books that had come out since Timothy Zahn had reignited storytelling for Star Wars, and they wanted a clean slate for the sequels. So Mitth'raw'nuruodo together with countless other characters were no longer part of official canon. At least not until 2016 when the blue skinned Chiss was reintroduced into Star Wars lore in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, where he became the primary antagonist for seasons 3 and 4 and voiced brilliantly by Lars Mikkelsen. His return led to the release of the aptly named novel Thrawn, by, of course, Timothy Zahn. This novel was followed by two sequels (released in 2018 and 2019) and a trilogy of prequels (starting in 2020). At the end of Rebels, he mysteriously disappeared into (presumably) the Unknown Regions.

But it doesn’t end there. In the fifth episode of season 2 of The Mandalorian, we learned that Ahsoka Tano is on the hunt for Thrawn (maybe to find the young Jedi Ezra Bridger, who went missing together with the Chiss). And as there is an upcoming Ahsoka series for Disney+ on the horizon (to be released in 2022 at the earliest), chances are that we may finally get to see a live-action Thrawn within the universe that Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are fleshing out.

Over the years, there have been many rumors (or more often just wishful thinking) pertaining to who could, would, or should play the red-eyed alien (like Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugo Weaving, Lars Mikkelsen himself, Tom Hiddleston, or Richard E. Grant, just to name a few). The latest addition to this illustrious roster is Robert Downey Jr., although, as with the other names, it is hard to tell whether there is actually meat on this bone and whether Lucasfilm is actually trying to convince Iron Man to switch franchises, or whether this is just another collective fan dream.

Anyhow, the uptick of interest in the Chiss Grand Admiral also led to Mr. Ossoff’s tweet from 2012 suddenly going viral in 2021. And although his dream of the Thrawn Trilogy becoming the sequels didn’t come true, he and we will, in the foreseeable future, finally meet Mitth'raw'nuruodo in the flesh and blood.

Written By Gerald Petschk

Syndicated From Culture Slate

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