Referencing Zahn's annotations in the 20th Anniversary Edition of Heir to the Empire, John Booth wrote in Wired that Zahn "created and developed Thrawn as a character [by] deliberately establishing the Grand Admiral as a villain who leads not by coercion and fear but through valuing strategy and loyalty". Zahn explained in 2008 that Thrawn's version of the Empire is different from that of Palpatine because Thrawn does not have Palpatine's megalomania and xenophobia. Calling Thrawn and Mara Jade his favorite of the characters he created, Zahn noted in 2006 that writing the Grand Admiral "provides the intellectual challenge of trying to come up with new, clever, and (hopefully) workable tactics and strategies." Zahn has also stated that Thrawn's entire motivation, both serving in the Empire and the Ascendancy, is to protect the Chiss people and "everything else flows from that." and by Tim Russell in the 1997 audio drama Dark Forces: Soldier for the Empire. In seasons three and four of Star Wars Rebels, Thrawn is voiced by Lars Mikkelsen.
Appearances
Legends works
thumb|[[Timothy Zahn in 2012]]
According to Zahn, Lou Aronica of Bantam Spectra had negotiated a book deal with Lucasfilm in 1989, and the publisher put Zahn's name at the top of their list of possible authors. He said, "My original instructions from LucasArts consisted of exactly two rules: the books were to start 3–5 years after Return of the Jedi, and I couldn't use anyone who'd been explicitly killed off in the movies." saying that they "saved me from having to reinvent the wheel many times".