Philoni is right. When Thrawn first joined the cast of Star Wars Rebels, “he was something we haven’t seen since Tarkin in the first movie, a normal non-magical villain who we might hate because he’s pure calculated evil: a ruthless military strategist who thinks of numbers not lives That he is the big bad of the New Republic era makes sense and is quite exciting.
After all, the best thing that “Star Wars” has done in recent years is to expand into new eras, such as the Empire Kingdom era of “Andor” and new games. Lucasfilm is now looking to return to theaters, and they do so by exploring previously unknown parts of the timeline, like the first Jedi in “Dawn of the Jedi.” Dave Filoni is also making a movie, which will cross over and conclude all of his television work, building up to his version of “Heir of the Empire.”
The problem is, this isn’t the same “Star Wars” universe that author Timothy Zahn toyed with. As James Whitbrook pointed out in a brilliant article for io9, Filoni’s film can only really take the gist of Zahn’s Thrawn story about the Imperial Remnant fleet, because unlike audiences in the ’80s, we know that the forces Remnant Imperials mocked in “Mandalorian.” they’re just going to disappear eventually to make way for the First Order, which, unlike the one in the books, is not at all different from the original Empire. Zahn’s trilogy was about the Empire learning from Palpatine’s mistakes and trying again, for better or worse, but the new canon doesn’t have room for it.
He has room for a badass villain who doesn’t need the strength to be scary, and Thrawn is just that.