Star Wars: Episode VIII THEORY - Is Benicio Del Toro Playing Grand Admiral Thrawn?

3. Why Could Del Toro Be Playing Him?

I mean, just look at him. All you need to do is paint him blue (and we know from Guardians Of The Galaxy he's not above that sort of silly get-up) and you have a pretty close approximation of Thrawn in live-action. He's got the right build, is about the right age and that calm determinism fits the actor perfectly (he's brilliant in Sicario, trust me). If you're going to pick a dream casting for Thrawn, del Toro would seem like the obvious choice (and he was Rian Johnson's first pick for the villain, after all). What makes this theory work so well is that any perceived problems with the character's presence or the casting can be explained away with the help of this being a borrowing from the EU, rather than a direct copy. Take the voice; Thrawn was described in Zahn's trilogy as having a quietly modulated voice, which was made slightly British in the audiobook and presented as having a basic, American accent in Star Wars: TIE Fighter, in which he appeared for a couple of cutscenes. Neither of these fit del Toro, but now both those sources are non-canon we don't know how the Chiss (Thrawn's species) sound. In fact, given Star Wars' predication to using real-world accents to show different cultures - something of questionable racial sensitivity that is regardless still maintained - it's conceivable his Puerto Rican intonation could be more appropriated.