Forrest Whitaker's character in Rogue One has been confirmed to be Saw Gerrara, a character introduced in The Clone Wars.

While I was never a fan of Saw, this is pretty cool that they pulled a character from TCW.

Also this goes to show that whenever someone cynically says that Disney wants nothing to do with the prequel era and are trying to ignore it, you can tell them to shush.

Also tell them that Lucasfilm makes those decisions not Disney. Seriously.

This is really cool, and sets a nice precedent. It means we COULD have the Rebels characters feature (even as cameos) in live-action films.

The big deal about this is a character from a different medium made his way into film, and not vis versa.

This happened before with minor background characters, but this guy is getting a major part in this film.

That's a big deal and shows that the story group is actually doing good work keeping everything linked and cohesive.

interesting. I have to admit that I still kinda HATE it that they can just keep pulling from Prequel-era stuff and they don't EVER wanna pull from the EU.

Cmon Rebels Season 3! Give us Thrawn!

The biggest problem with Thrawn is he is definitely after Vader... and with Rebels stuck in the timeline where they are, there shouldn't be a way for them to encounter him. I know, they can rewrite whatever they want, but I don't know that we will see Thrawn in Rebels, but I hope we see him in the timeline of the movies. Especially if they truly portray him with his holo-art collections and Art of War mentality. But if they bring him in, that opens up a lot of other issues... so no matter what, lots of rewriting has to happen.

Well they're pulling lots of Legends elements for lots of stuff, particularly Rebels. Just no characters as of yet.

Grabbing characters is a tricky thing since they would have to re-imagine them in some way, but if you do that all of the people who loved the character from Legends will whine about it. It's a tough thing.

That said Filoni did teas us with a picture of Heir to the Empire in reference to something in Season 3 of Rebels. I think the Thrawn rumors might be true.

Certain Legends characters would be easier to fit into the new canon than others. Kyle Katarn? Not without major re-imagining. Thrawn? He'd fit with very little re-writing.

The biggest problem with Thrawn is he is definitely after Vader... and with Rebels stuck in the timeline where they are, there shouldn't be a way for them to encounter him. I know, they can rewrite whatever they want, but I don't know that we will see Thrawn in Rebels, but I hope we see him in the timeline of the movies. Especially if they truly portray him with his holo-art collections and Art of War mentality. But if they bring him in, that opens up a lot of other issues... so no matter what, lots of rewriting has to happen.

Thrawn wouldn't need to be a top-level Imperial officer. You could have a younger Captain Thrawn or something. He wasn't instantly made a Grand Admiral in the Legends continuity, he worked his way up through the ranks. I would like to see what Thrawn would make of Sabine's art, though.

The biggest problem with Thrawn is he is definitely after Vader... and with Rebels stuck in the timeline where they are, there shouldn't be a way for them to encounter him. I know, they can rewrite whatever they want, but I don't know that we will see Thrawn in Rebels, but I hope we see him in the timeline of the movies. Especially if they truly portray him with his holo-art collections and Art of War mentality. But if they bring him in, that opens up a lot of other issues... so no matter what, lots of rewriting has to happen.

Thrawn wouldn't need to be a top-level Imperial officer. You could have a younger Captain Thrawn or something. He wasn't instantly made a Grand Admiral in the Legends continuity, he worked his way up through the ranks. I would like to see what Thrawn would make of Sabine's art, though.

In fact, given that the Empire's anti-alien sentiments would have guaranteed that any promotions didn't occur until he had accomplished far more than a human officer of the same rank, it would make perfect sense for him to have the skill and brilliance of an admiral while still wearing a lower rank. Rather than Grand Admiral Thrawn commanding the entire Imperial Fleet, you could have Commander Thrawn in charge of a corvette assigned to a task group under another officer.

Thrawn as captain of an Interdictor cruiser would be nice. Showing how he learned to use them

That, or him commanding some still to be released large imperial ship as a lieutenant or something :-)

Thrawn as captain of an Interdictor cruiser would be nice. Showing how he learned to use them

That, or him commanding some still to be released large imperial ship as a lieutenant or something :-)

While that would be fun to see, I'm not sure a lieutenant would be commanding any ship, much less a large one.

Unless...if Thrawn were the next most senior officer under the captain of the ship and the captain died, Thrawn would be acting captain until a replacement could be sent out. If the replacement were sufficiently delayed, that may be enough time for Thrawn to prove his worth and impress his chain of command enough to make the promotion permanent.

If the captain's death came about as a result of him trying to defect, and Thrawn were the one who figured out his plan and thwarted it, that could have further improved his status in the eyes of Imperial leadership...

Wasn't a Decimator the first possible command for a lieutenant?

Navies always have placed lieutenants in command of ships and stil do.

Obtaining the rank of senior lieutenant (or lieutenant first class) and commanding a large ship or Gozanti on his way to become captain of a destroyer could easily be the path of Thrawn.

See also the flavour-text on the Patrol Leader card, to which my phone refuses to create a link.

Wasn't a Decimator the first possible command for a lieutenant?

Navies always have placed lieutenants in command of ships and stil do.

Obtaining the rank of senior lieutenant (or lieutenant first class) and commanding a large ship or Gozanti on his way to become captain of a destroyer could easily be the path of Thrawn.

See also the flavour-text on the Patrol Leader card, to which my phone refuses to create a link.

Sorry, you're right; I misspoke. I meant any capital ship.

Needa held the rank of Lieutenant Commander when he held the post of captain of the Carrack-class light cruiser Integrity during the Clone Wars.

Might be interesting to see what the lowest ranked capital ship captain known is.