Star Wars: Ahsoka’s new trailer finally revealed the live-action debut of franchise villain Grand Admiral Thrawn, but the reveal has caused an unexpected comparison to be made across social media platforms. After waiting for Thrawn to make the transition from animation to live action, the response has been overshadowed by many fans noting an uncanny similarly between Lars Mikkelsen’s villain and one Elon Musk, or “Smurf Musk” as one Twitter user quickly dubbed him.
Social media is the best place to go if you want to see the internet pick apart anything, and the arrival of a Star Wars trailer is always good for a bit of Twitter trolling from fans. This time around it took no time at all for the comments on the trailer to note how the blue-skinned Thrawn does bear a striking resemblance to Twitter boss Musk, and you can see just some of the many comments below.
Grand Admiral Thrawn has had a rough ride in the Star Wars franchise, even before being compared to Elon Musk, having originally debuted in Star Wars novels by Timothy Zahn in the 1990s and very quickly becoming established as another fan-favorite Star Wars villain. However, Disney abandoned Thrawn as part of Star Wars canon when they took over Lucasfilm just over a decade ago and it was not until 2016 that he was saved from obscurity by Dave Filoni as part of the Star Wars: Rebels animated series, voiced by Mikkelsen. Now he will have a chance to gain a whole new following as part of Ahsoka.
Ahsoka will Continue The Mandalorian Era Expansion.
Dave Filoni will be bringing The Mandalorian era of Star Wars to a close with a big screen movie in the coming years, but before that he continues to build out this corner of the universe in Ahsoka. Acting as a follow-up to Star Wars: Rebels, and a spin-off from The Mandalorian, there is a lot going for Ahsoka even before you add in the return of Hayden Christensen as either Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader.
Although it is known that Christensen will feature at some point in the series, it has been kept tightly under wraps as to exactly what his purpose and scope in the series will be. Having made a very popular return to the Star Wars franchise in last year’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, fans are now desperate to see the actor making other appearances in future, although it is unclear whether that will happen.
Ahsoka will make its debut on Disney+ in August, so still has time to build expectation and hype before its arrival. However, with the most recent season of The Mandalorian not being quite as well received as the first two, everyone behind the scenes will be hoping that bubble hasn’t burst and Ahsoka can recapture everything that made The Mandalorian a success. Only time will tell which way it will go, and that time will come as soon as the first episode drops on August 23.