Star Wars Grand Admiral Thrawn returns with a new adaptation this September

The Empire's most ruthless tactician arrives in a new format

The last Star Wars fans saw Grand Admiral Thrawn — full name Mitth'raw'nuruodo, if you were curious — was 2023’s Ahsoka. There, viewers watched as Thrawn departed from exile on the far-flung planet of Peridea to make his way back home to the known galaxy. Since then, it’s been crickets from the Empire’s most ruthless strategist, but that’s all about to change in a few months' time.

Thrawn has appeared several times throughout in both Star Wars canon and the non-canon Legends continuity, proving himself to be a thorn in the side of iconic heroes like Hera Syndulla and her fellow rebels of the Ghost crew, and even Anakin Skywalker. This time, however, Thrawn is getting a new chance to toy with the enemy in the first volume of Thrawn, an upcoming manga adaptation arriving this September.

What is the Thrawn manga about?

Fans of Thrawn have been waiting years for him to come back, and that return seems imminent with the US and Canadian release of the manga adaptation of Timothy Zahn’s 2017 novel of the same name, Thrawn.

The 192-page manga adaptation, published by Panini Publishing and illustrated by Man Tsang, has been summarized as charting the “formative steps of a mind destined to reshape the galaxy.”

For those not in the know, Thrawn is the first novel in the Star Wars: The Imperial Trilogy by Zahn, and should not be confused with the original Thrawn Trilogy of 1991-1993 (also written by Zahn). Zahn’s 2017-2019 trilogy follows Thrawn’s lowly beginnings as an exiled Chiss warrior who pledges his loyalty to Emperor Palpatine, and his rise to power as one of the most brutal tacticians the galaxy has ever known.

This isn’t the first time that there has been an adaptation of Zahn’s popular Thrawn trilogy. Marvel Comics also brought the novel to life in 2018, with writing by Jody Houser and illustrations by Luke Ross. Like the novel — and now the manga — the comic follows Thrawn’s rise, and takes place after Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, leading right up to Star Wars: Rebels season 3.

In a YouTube interview, Tsang spoke about the hardship of adapting the novel into a manga.

"There are only two types of expressions in action comics. Either extremely angry or happy and smiling, which is much simpler,” he said. “But now Grand Admiral Thrawn is more like a politician who plots and schemes. As soon as I read the novel, I realized that adapting it to manga will be a lot harder than I thought it would be."

Will the Thrawn manga cover the entire Thrawn trilogy?

At the time of writing, it’s uncertain whether the Thrawn manga will cover the entire trilogy.

However, based on previous adaptations, it’s likely that the manga will cover only the first book. Whether Tsang will go on to adapt the other two novels (Thrawn: Alliances and Thrawn: Treason), as Marvel Comics did with its comic versions of the trilogy, remains to be seen.

What is the release date for the Thrawn manga?

Thrawn Vol.1 was first released on June 9 in the United Kingdom. Star Wars fans in the United States and Canada can purchase Volume 1 when it releases on September 29 of this year.