New Star Wars Series Officially Exposes a Dark Secret Behind the Sequel Trilogy

Let's talk about Thrawn and the New Republic...

The annual D23 fan event in Anaheim, California, is over, but not before it delivered several exciting new Star Wars announcements, including an update on Star Wars: Starfighter. However, arguably the most exciting announcement was the reveal of the trailer and release date for Ahsoka season 2. It’s been three years since we last saw Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and her Mandalorian apprentice Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) travel to the planet Peridea in search of Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and the Empire’s most cunning officer, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). While both Ezra and Thrawn ended up escaping back to the galaxy we all know and love, Ahsoka and Sabine ended up stranded.

The Ahsoka season 2 trailer reveals the consequences of these events: Thrawn is back and has declared war on the Rebel Alliance. Anyone who watched Rebels or read the Thrawn novels knows that he isn’t someone to mess with, which has certain Star Wars fans scratching their heads at Thrawn’s declaration.

If the New Republic was aware of Thrawn’s intentions, how is it that they were as unprepared for Imperial factions and sympathies as they were by the time of the sequel era? And if a galactic way is about to ensue, wouldn't the characters in the subsequent sequel trilogy mention it at least once over the course of three movies. In other words: Is Dave Filoni’s live-action sequel to Rebels unintentionally breaking Star Wars canon?

Not quite, but the reason why reveals an even bigger conspiracy in the Star Wars saga.

Grand Admiral Thrawn’s return explained

Disney and Lucasfilm have been setting up Thrawn’s return for a while now. Thrawn and Ezra both disappeared in 1 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), with Ezra using the Force to speak to the Purgills (space whales) to transport him and Thrawn to a far-off galaxy. Yet even with Thrawn’s disappearance and the defeat of the Empire in 5 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), Imperial remnant warlords have been plotting in secret to destroy the New Republic and restore the Empire to its former glory — all part of Emperor Palpatine’s contingency plan to return and rule. Fans who are interested in hearing more about that particular contingency plan should check out the single-player campaign of EA’s 2017 Star Wars: Battlefront 2. As we saw in seasons 2 and 3 of The Mandalorian, these remnants, such as Brendol Hux, believed they could pursue their goals only with Thrawn's return.

As for Thrawn, his absence from the known galaxy was far from enough to stop him from plotting. In the years since he arrived on Peridea, he forged an alliance with the Nightsisters to use their magic to help him return, and he worked on restoring his Star Destroyer. By the time Ahsoka’s first season concludes, Thrawn has managed to return and is ready to take on his title as ‘Heir of the Empire.’

Why is Thrawn not mentioned in the sequels?

Ahsoka’s season 2 trailer reveals several fascinating scenes that lead us to assume that Thrawn’s return is considered a major threat to both the New Republic and several major characters like Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), Garazeb Orrelios (Steve Blum), and Ezra Bridger.

While we don’t know how Ahsoka season 2 will play out, we do know that Thrawn is not mentioned and — as far as the general populace is concerned — the galaxy has been reasonably assured that the Empire and anyone who was sympathetic to that regime are long gone. It has, to sum it up, been a time of peace. But how can that be if Thrawn has declared war?

There’s certainly the argument that Disney and Lucasfilm’s poor planning of the sequel trilogy played some part in the lack of mention of Imperial warlords and sympathizers. How can you mention something that hasn’t been planned?

But, and this is a huge but, The Force Awakens has already established that the New Republic was complacent at best. Not only was the new government dealing with de-weaponizing and dismantling the Empire, but it was also struggling to deal with pirates and mercenaries. By the time the sequel movies begin, Leia Organa’s established Resistance is the only group willing to stand up to the First Order, an organization composed of surviving sympathizers, officers, scientists, and others from the Empire. In fact, the New Republic is so unprepared that when the First Order uses Starkiller Base to destroy its seat of government on Hosnian Prime, its entire defense network falls apart.

The New Republic’s complacency is further underscored in Ahsoka, The Mandalorian, and in several books, including Claudia Gray’s Bloodline and Chuck Wendig’s Aftermath trilogy. In the Aftermath books, the defeat of the Empire leaves the fledgling new government overconfident that the threat is over, allowing Imperial remnants to slip through the cracks. Meanwhile, in Ahsoka, New Republic senators refuse to believe in Thrawn’s return. In The Mandalorian, Imperial moles have infiltrated the government through its Amnesty program. In Bloodline, Leia’s true parentage forces her to resign from her position in the New Republic and reveals that the government has grown too corrupt to handle the threat of the First Order. She’ll have to deal with it instead by forming the Resistance.

With all of the above in mind, Thrawn’s return in Ahsoka season 2 and his declaration of war could very well inspire the same confidence that enabled the Imperials to escape the New Republic’s grasp in the first place. It’s not guaranteed to happen — we still don’t know what will happen in Ahsoka’s second season — but from what we’ve seen so far, there is nothing wildly out of place about Thrawn’s return that indicates a retcon to what the sequel trilogy laid out in The Force Awakens.

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Ahsoka season 2 premieres Jan. 20, 2027.