The Challenge of Bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn to Live-Action: A Surprising Reason
Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni reveals the unique challenge he faced in bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn to life in the live-action Star Wars show. Learn about the complexities of adapting Thrawn's character, the technology challenges, and the future of the Volume.
The Complexities of Adapting Thrawn's Character
Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni faced a unique challenge in bringing Grand Admiral Thrawn to life in the live-action Star Wars show. Originally created by author Timothy Zahn for his Heir to the Empire trilogy of books, now designated as part of the non-canonical Legends continuity, Filoni first reintroduced the brilliant Imperial tactician into the official Star Wars continuity as a key antagonist in season 3 of the animated Star Wars: Rebels series.
Star Wars' Grand Admiral Thrawn from the Ahsoka series.
Most recently, the popular Star Wars villain made his live-action debut in Ahsoka season 1, played by Lars Mikkelsen, the same actor to voice the character in animated form. Speaking with Empire magazine, Filoni discusses his desire to get Thrawn’s live-action look perfect, a task which even came down to determining how blue to make his skin tone. Revealing that Lucasfilm’s StageCraft technology, referred to as the Volume, casts a magenta tone onto its performers, it became necessary to adjust Mikkelsen’s make-up depending on what stage he was filming on. Check out his comments below:
"It's amazing how many versions of [Thrawn’s make-up] went through the make-up team. The Volume set where Lars would do a decent amount of shooting casts a magenta tone. So with his colour palette, we had to dial it differently depending on what stage he was at."
The Technology Challenges
Long before Disney embarked on their own live-action Star Wars television shows, George Lucas had plans for his own television series dubbed Star Wars: Underworld. However, the costs of producing the show’s extensive special effects ultimately prevented the project from moving forward at the time. Yet when The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau and Industrial Light and Magic were able to pioneer the use of a 360-degree LED soundstage that allowed photo-realistic computer backgrounds to be rendered in real-time, it fundamentally changed the way both his show and future Star Wars projects could be made at a fraction of the cost of traditional blue-screen technology.
Yet for all its advantages, the Volume’s unique technology has been known to cause a few issues for performers, not least of which being the need to adapt Thrawn’s make-up constantly. Previously, other Star Wars actors, such as The Mandalorian’s Bill Burr, have spoken about the Volume’s propensity for causing a sense of vertigo as the background shifts to match camera movements. More importantly, though, the Volume’s illusion only works effectively if certain key conditions are met, including lighting and the grouping of performers on set with respect to the projected backgrounds.
With Filoni’s latest revelation concerning Mikkelsen’s time as Thrawn on Ahsoka, it is clear that the Volume is still an emerging technology, and its users are in a constant process of discovering both its full potential and consequent drawbacks. However, with the Star Wars franchise notorious for being on the cutting edge of emerging film technologies, it is likely that the Volume will continue to evolve and be refined thanks to the lessons learned on Ahsoka and each Star Wars project to follow.
The Future of the Volume
With Filoni’s latest revelation concerning Mikkelsen’s time as Thrawn on Ahsoka, it is clear that the Volume is still an emerging technology, and its users are in a constant process of discovering both its full potential and consequent drawbacks. However, with the Star Wars franchise notorious for being on the cutting edge of emerging film technologies, it is likely that the Volume will continue to evolve and be refined thanks to the lessons learned on Ahsoka and each Star Wars project to follow.
