Grand Admiral Thrawn is finally a part of the official Star Wars canon.

Reveal of Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels Season Three trailer.

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Grand Admiral Thrawn 6 IMAGES

The trailer for Star Wars Rebels: Season 3, shown at Star Wars Celebration 2016 in London, confirmed inclusion of the iconic Expanded Universe villain.The character first appeared in Timothy Zahn's Thrawn trilogy of novels (1991-1993), but was placed under the Star Wars Legends banner (non-canonical story) on April 25, 2014, when Lucasfilm trimmed back the Expanded Universe in preparation for the upcoming sequel trilogy, beginning with The Force Awakens.The character has long been a fan-favourite and a key player in the Expanded Universe, often ranking in lists of the most popular Star Wars villains.The show's director, Dave Filoni, said, "You couldn't have grown up as a Star Wars fan without encountering Admiral Thrwan... It was significant. I have to say it was always on a lot of our minds."We have a lot of like-minded things we wanted to see in Star Wars and one of them was always Thrawn. We strategise on when best to bring him in, but it was important to do it right."General Admiral Thrawn will be played by Lars Mikkelsen, the older brother of Mads Mikkelsen who will star in Rogue One later this year.Timothy Zahn, the character's creator, appeared via pre-recorded message and thanked Filoni and the rest of the Rebels crew for the "incredible honour" of adapting the character in the show.Zahn also revealed that he is working on a new Thrawn novel (simply titled Thrawn) coming Spring 2017.For more on Star Wars Rebels, check out our review of the Season 3 premiere that debuted at Celebration.

Daniel is IGN's UK Managing Editor. He sometimes writes about movies, too. You can be part of the world's most embarrassing cult by following him on IGN and Twitter Additional reporting by Eric Goldman.