Will Thrawn Be The Only Big Bad Of The Filoni Film?

Star Wars

Dec 20

Fans of the dubbed Mandoverse have been waiting for the Filoni film with great anticipation ever since season 1 of The Mandalorian started all those years ago. Many think that this film will be the grand culmination of the era with all the heroes coming together to defeat a great evil.

If one has been watching the Mandoverse shows it would stand to reason that said villain would be Grand Admiral Thrawn, the last of the Imperial Grand Admirals who plans to restore the Empire to glory. What if this is not the case, what if there is more than one antagonist to the grand finale of it all, what if there is more than one big bad of the Mandoverse

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Heir To The Empire artwork — Image Source: Geekosity

Grand Admiral Thrawn is an interesting antagonist in his own right, a tactical genius for the Empire, it is what made him such an icon when he first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s Heir to the Empire in 1991. However, that didn’t mean that his original trilogy of books didn’t have a major antagonist that wasn’t powerful in the Force. That honor went to the mad clone Dark Jedi Joruus Cboath, who served as the primary dark side Force user villain for Luke Skywalker to go up against while the rest of the New Republic battled Thrawn and his forces.

Star Wars, when at least telling a story at the scale of the saga, normally has a villain to represent the dark side of the Force. So far only Thrawn has been set up as a major antagonist for the Empire but who will represent the dark side of the Force? Here are some options that I have considered.

Baylan Skoll

Out of the obvious villains in the Mandoverse to represent the dark side of the Force that would of course be Baylan Skoll, a former member of the Jedi Order. During Ahsoka, Baylan was less interested in finding Thrawn and more in what was on the planet Peridia, so much so that Thrawn himself only cared a little if Baylan returned with him back to the known Galaxy or not. At the end of Ahsoka Season 1, Baylan stays on the planet Peridia and is hunting for something connected to the Mortis Gods. His plans are very separated from the Grand Admirals and thus he has his own agenda and end goal seeking some sort of power to end the cycle.

Baylan at this point seems like a great candidate to be a dual antagonist to the rest of the Mandoverse, the only issue of course being the passing of Ray Stevenson. With his passing as Baylan primary actor, things may be in flux and shifting for how the narrative would go down with him as he continues into the yet-as-announced Ahsoka Season 2.

Snoke

There isn’t much to go on with this option outside the fact that he’ll be a major player in the Sequel Trilogy but Supreme Leader Snoke could play a role as representing the main dark side threat that our antagonist has to face off. Very little is known of Snoke in this era outside that he will eventually be sent to seduce Ben Solo to the dark side. Jon Favreau has said that the Mandalorian and its spin-offs will play a role in showing how the First Order will rise from the ashes of the Empire. Apart from some references to clones and something called “Project Necromancy '' there isn’t much evidence that Snoke will even appear in the Mandoverse at this point or if he is at large at the moment.

The Son Of Mortis

Now this theory is probably the wildest guess of who could serve the focus as the main dark side actor in the Mandoverse so far could be none other than the Son of Mortis. For those who don’t know the Son of Mortis represents the dark side, he is its literal embodiment of darkness. Thanks to the Ahsoka series we know that Baylan is looking for something related to the Mortis gods, something is calling to him, something only he can hear. We know that the Daughter, the embodiment of the light, Morai, is still somehow active thanks to Ahsoka, so what does that pertain to the Son of Mortis?

Ahsoka could be setting up for the return of the Mortis gods and that the Son may be breaking free of the bounds of Mortis. With the return of the Son he could take the mantel of a literal dark side villain for our heroes to fight alongside Thrawn with the grand culmination of all these Mandoverse stories comes to the big screen,

Beyond The Empire

Whatever is to come when the Mandoverse wraps up will be a fun adventure indeed, as of now we’ve had pretty much three overarching antagonists, first in Moff Gideon, now in Grand Admiral Thrawn, and Baylan Skoll, who will continue to be some of the villainous antagonists our heroes face when we reach the finale. Some things have been set in motion while others still seem to be up in the air, regardless it is an exciting time to be a Star Wars fan as we watch this epic saga within the saga continue as we expand the galaxy far, far away.

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