It’s hard to imagine now, but back in 1991, Heir to the Empire was the first book that truly opened up the post- Return of the Jedi era. Here’s why this matters: the year in which The Mandalorian takes place, 9 ABY (After the Battle of Yavin), is the same year in which Heir to the Empire happened in Legends. While it’s unclear whether Ahsoka has already found Ezra by the time Mando meets her on Corvus in “The Jedi,” she does know that Thrawn is back and operating somewhere in the galaxy.

Five years later, just after the Battle of Endor, Sabine and Ahsoka reunited on Ezra’s home planet of Lothal and decided to go look for their lost Jedi friend. In the Disney canon timeline, the last time we saw Thrawn was in roughly 0 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin), in the Rebelsseries finale, in which Ezra and Thrawn jumped into deep hyperspace on the Star Destroyer Chimaera to parts unknown. The most compelling reason to believe that the events of The Mandaloriancould be low-key retconning the events of Heir to the Empireis simply that Ahsoka mentions she’s looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Yes, Thrawn has already been re-canonized, thanks to the Rebels animated series and the newer Zahn books that have come out in the past few years, but none of those retcons put Thrawn back in the era that first made him famous. Because of the timing of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka mentioning Thrawn in “The Jedi” puts the character right back where he used to be in the infamously eradicated Legends timeline, which used to be known as the Expanded Universe before Disney took over.

Star wars thrawn heir to the empire