Summary
The recent push forStar Warslive-action debuts have been much appreciated by fans, but one decision made in bringing a certain character to the small screen has been given the fix treatment by one social media user.
Star Warshas seen a rapid growth in its content since the Disney era began and canon was scrubbed to build up a new one. Most recently, a slew of live-action projects for Disney+ have given fans all sorts of firsts and interesting experiences, with the most notable of these beingStar Wars: Ahsoka,which was easily one ofthe best Disney+ series of the year. The show’s first season ended on an eventful final arc, which featured the live-action debut of none other than Grand Admiral Thrawn, portrayed by hisStar Wars: Rebelsvoice actor Lars Mikkelsen.
WhileMikkelsen made one major change to his Thrawn portrayal for the live-action, other changes were made by the costume and makeup team, and one fan on social media thinks they’ve made a mistake. In a post to the r/StarWars boards on the site titled “They could improve him so much by just changing his wig, dont you think?”, Reddit userdanielwhitehalluploaded an image featuring two side-by-side stills of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s live-action depiction fromStar Wars: Ahsoka,with the one to the left showing the character’s unaltered form and the one on the right showing off an edited version with a much more appealing hairline. The images sport no other differences, all the better for other fans on the site to admire the fix.
The edits not only make the character look better but actually bring his look in line with previous depictions of the character in the comics and animated shows. However, many fans were quick to disagree and point out that the new look tells youeverything you need to know about Thrawnpost-time skip. These users highlight the fact that the character has been through a lot since he was last seen and has aged quite a bit as well, making it more than reasonable to expect a less refined, less youthful look. Others in the replies also took issue with such a minor detail being nitpicked despite the fan-favorite being cast and the costume being very accurate. While this segment of respondents seemed upset for this reason, some more casual respondents likened the image to Elon Musk in blue body paint.
While the original post is certainly humorous and does show off some really smooth editing work, it sort of misses the mark on what matters with Thrawn. In reality, his looks have little to do withwhat it is that makes Thrawn so scary inStar Warsand shouldn’t be that big a deal beyond a certain level of faithfulness to the source material. Additionally, being of an alien species makes it perfectly feasible that he could undergo whatever minor changes the showrunners see fit to inflict on him, making complaints about his hairline especially uncalled for. On the other hand, when bringing an iconic character to live-action, there’s a case to be made that fans want to see the most common version of the character and not one that’s noticeably different from what was imagined. The addition of a younger Thrawn in a flashback sequence could go a long way to really highlight the difference in much the same way Ezra Bridger’s facial hair did for that character.
Considering thatfans might already haveAhsokaSeason 2 in the worksdue to popular demand, there’s still time for the show to give Thrawn more screen time and really drive home how his time in another galaxy has changed him. Fans will have to wait and see whether or not the hairline will be fixed with his return home.
TheStar Warsfranchise is available to stream on Disney+.
Star Wars
Star Wars is a multimedia franchise originally created by George Lucas and Lucasfilm Ltd with the 1977 motion picture. The science fiction franchise follows the adventures of characters (both humanoid and alien) in outer space including those who can wield a mystical power known as the Force. Since the release of the original trilogy of movies, the franchise has expanded to include multiple films and branched out to other media like comics, video games, tv shows, theme park attractions, and more. The IP and Lucasfilm were sold to Disney in 2012.
