Robert Downey Jr. and Karen Gillan RUMORED to be Cast as Thrawn and Mara Jade. Thoughts

[Winter]

I can't emphasis enough that at the time of this writing these are only Rumors and have not been confirmed by the actors, Lucas Film or Disney and this post is simply to talk about my thoughts on the IDEA of these Possible casting choices.

I've mentioned before that I think that John Boyega is the perfect casting choice for Kyle Katarn and that The Disney Sequel Trilogy WASTED him as Finn who, for me at least, feels like Diet Kyle Katarn. He's got Kyle's general backstory and is Force Sensitive but he lacks Kyle's snark, his almost roguish charm and ability to actually get $#!t done without looking like a complete joke while Finn is turned into the butt of the joke to make other characters look good simply by comparison. I will always be a little salty that Disney wasted such a perfect casting choice in exchange for a character who will mostly like only be remembered for screaming "REEEY!!!" throughout the Trilogy.

By contrast Lars Mikkelsen was PERFECTLY cast as Grand Admiral Thrawn to the point that much like Kevin Conroy whenever I hear Thrawn's voice in my head I can only hear Mikkelsen's voice. I would be perfectly fine with him returning in live action all they would have to do is paint him blue and give him red contacts and as shown with Vision over on Marvel you can CG in the finer details to give him the look he had in Rebels.

And thus we come to Robert Downey Jr. who is currently rumored to play Thrawn and I'm... not sure about this. Thrawn is a character who conceals his emotions so you can never tell what he's thinking and RDJ is a rather expressive actor. Not in any over the top way but you can always tell what he's characters are going through based solely on his expressions. A good example of this RDJ as Sherlock, go watch those films and you can see what Sherlock is thinking just based on RDJ's face without him ever having to say a line. This is a great but I don't think that fits Thrawn.

Also, RDJ tends to play characters that act as if their somewhat mad and while you can argue that fits Thrawn Thrawn's method in Madness is designed to give off the impression that he is thinking in a way that makes for an alien while RDJ's madness is design to be more often used as a cover for his true intellect. And finally there's the fact that RDJ ALWAYS includes a LOT of snark in his characters and while Thrawn can be sassy he's not really that snarky and almost never cracks a joke.

I'm happy to be proven wrong but I just can't see RDJ as Grand Admiral Thrawn. I can see him as Talon Karrde who I think would fit RDJ like a glove as he has all the traits that I just noted in RDJ's styles.

On the flip side I could see Karen Gillan as Mara Jade. Not only does she look the part but she can be stoic, give a subtle performance where she hints at an undercurrent of anger that has built up over years and go full Daenerys Targaryen (pre-season 5 through 8). I would still need to see her in the role to make a proper judgement as a bad script or poor directing or a lack of understanding the character can ruin the whole thing but I can see Gillan as Mara Jade. The only issue I see is that she would have the wear a wig due to her still playing the role of Nebula over in the MCU.

But yeah, that's my thoughts on the idea of RDJ and Gillan playing the lead antagonist and lead protagonist of the Thrawn Trilogy. Thoughts.

[Al-1701]

Considering nothing's been confirmed and are only rumors, they might have only been called in for reads. And RDJ makes sense given Favreau's involvement even if he doesn't seem like a perfect, he is a known commodity to Favreau and might as well be given a shot. I doubt he will get the part, as it isn't his style and their other Star Wars characters he would fit better.

[Thebestoftherest]

I just hope they don't do a Mytique and have him not in the make up for way too long.

[Hero_Of_Shadows]

I just hope they don't do a Mytique and have him not in the make up for way too long.

For Mistique that was an legitimate option for Thrawn they don't have anything that would make sense what he randomly becomes human ?

I'm interested in the potential for Mara Jade, if we get her that must mean they're doing a love story for Luke. It would be an interesting story to see.

[Thebestoftherest]

Not sure doubt they used young like that too expensive