Star Wars: Ahsoka's Thrawn is original voice actor Lars Mikkelsen

Ashoka Tano’s new Disney Plus series isn’t too far away, and we now know who its villain will be: Thrawn. The infamous Imperial admiral will appear for the first time in live action in the series, and Lucasfilm announced at Star Wars Celebration that he will be played by Danish actor Lars Mikkelsen — Thrawn’s original voice actor from the Star Wars animated series.

Joining Mikkelsen in the series’ cast of villains will be Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, the antagonist from the episode of The Mandalorian’s second season that first introduced Rosario Dawson’s live-action Ahsoka. Ray Stevenson and Ivanna Sakhno will play lightsaber-wielding bad guys named Baylon and Shin, but series creator Dave Filoni wasn’t willing to reveal much about these characters at the panel.

Mikkelsen has steadfastly kept his casting in Ahsoka secret, repeatedly denying to press that he had been approached about reprising his famous role. The convention crowd was treated to an expanded version of yesterday’s trailer, this time showing Mikkelsen’s face in blue makeup as Thrawn, which was met with a rapturous cheer.

It was also confirmed that David Tennant will be returning to his role in the animated series as the droid Huyang.

Ahsoka will follow the Togruta Jedi in the period of time after most of her animated appearances, around the same time that we see her in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Dawson will be joined by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as fan-favorite characters Hera Syndulla and Sabine Wren. One other thing we do know is that, one way or another, Hayden Christensen is set to show up as Anakin in the series.

Filoni will act as executive producer and one of the writers for Ahsoka, and is joined in the director’s chair by Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, and returning Mandalorian helmer Rick Famuyiwa. Music comes from original animated series composer Kevin Kiner.