The Actor Who Impersonated Thrawn

There's Only One Grand Admiral Thrawn

By Culture SlatePublished 2 years ago • 4 min read

Grand Admiral Thrawn was one of the most notorious leaders in the Galactic Empire’s history. Even in death, his legacy was one for the history books. Many Imperial leaders wished to emulate him to succeed against the New Republic. So much so that in a desperate attempt to top the Imperial Remnant from making peace, loyalists hired an actor to play the Grand Admiral to trick the New Republic into breaking the truce between the Imperial Remnant and the New Republic. The name of that impersonator was Flim.

Flim was part of a broader conspiracy by the hardlines of the Imperial Remnant. The organization held most of the Galactic Empire’s territory many years after the Battle of Endor. The plan in question was to scare the New Republic into thinking that the Grand Admiral had returned once again. Even within the Empire, they wanted to put the fear of Thrawn into them. For its leader, Admiral Pellaeon was a protege of the Grand Admiral and would not make moves for peace with the New Republic without thinking twice about it.

Of course, the plan was exposed by the heroes of the Republic, Luke, Han, Leia, and new allies like Mara Jade. However, it just shows the power of Admiral Thrawn and his influence over the galaxy. That even an actor like Flim could possibly imitate the man so well. That just the notion of Thrawn being alive brings with it a mystique to it as well. It caused the New Republic to become quite tense and be afraid that the Empire was setting trap after trap after trap against them. Fearing what happened the last time Thrawn was at the helm of the Empire

The plan ultimately failed, and the conspiracy was revealed, but it’s a great indicator of just how much Thrawn’s influence still has over the Empire and the people of the galaxy. That just the mere thought of him being alive again would cause so much fear into the broader galaxy. That the New Republic would become shaken just by the idea of his return.

The events, in particular, were captured in Timothy Zahn’s The Hand of Thrawn Duology, which comprised of novels Spector of the Past and Vision of the Future. It was a final sendoff to the early 90’s Star Wars expanded universe before the license would go over from Bantam Spectra to Del Rey. So it was a bit of a rousing sendoff to that era, and dealing with Thrawn was an excellent way of doing it.

It’s very much the nineties, and thus Star Wars storytelling was always a bit wackier with these types of plots. More bizarre than some of the other stuff that happened in the nineties but still an indicator of the time these Star Wars stories were written.

Again the idea of a Thrawn actor, while silly in concept, was interesting in the context of Legends. That Thrawn is such a powerful character in his own right that the idea of his return would shake the galaxy to its core. Imperial forces using this to almost derail peace was an interesting concept to make the loyalists go to war for one last glorious conflict. Something we deal with a lot in today’s modern age, and Star Wars isn’t afraid to bring people back from the dead.

Star Wars always mimics real life up to a point and showing how sometimes hardliners don’t want peace is a part of real-life too. But, of course, they don’t always hire actors to pretend to be the living dead. But in Star Wars, it’s a pretty bizarre universe and thus making things like this normal for a fictional space fantasy world. Another day in the galaxy far, far away.

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