News has been incredibly slow on the Star Wars film and television front, but books are still going strong. Although

the first phase of books in

The High Republic

was delayed

to a January release,

an excerpt from the novel

Light of the Force

was recently dropped and Phase Two news is expected soon. Additionally,

From a Certain Point of View: The Empire Strikes Back

is on its way

in November, as well as

a new line of tie-ins to

The Mandalorian

coming in the fall, winter, and next spring.

But before we get to these projects, a familiar Grand Admiral must make his return. Author Timothy Zahn is taking us back in time, telling the story of Thrawn’s early Chiss military days with the

Thrawn Ascendancy

trilogy. The first novel,

Chaos Rising

, was initially set for release in May until being delayed to October and finally bumped up to September. After months of patience, fans of Thrawn have now been rewarded with a first look at the new book…

ADVERTISEMENT

CONFIRMATION

Del Rey

and Lucasfilm revealed an exclusive poster for

Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising,

set for release on September 1. The poster, depicting a young Thrawn and the sigils of the Chiss Nine Ruling Families and the Ascendancy, will be available in the Barnes and Noble copies and can be seen below:

Additionally, an excerpt from the prologue of the novel was released:

The full excerpt can be read on the

official Star Wars website

.

The attack on the Chiss Ascendancy homeworld of Csilla was sudden, unexpected, and—despite its limited scope—impressively efficient.

But ultimately it was all for nothing. The defense platforms easily picked off the incoming missiles while the warships targeted the attack­ing ships themselves, blasting them into rubble and making sure that any fragments entering the atmosphere were too small to survive the journey. Within fifteen minutes of the attack force’s arrival, it was over.

The threat had ended, Supreme General Ba’kif thought grimly as he strode down the central corridor toward the Cupola where the syndics and other Aristocra were assembling after making their way back from the shelters.

Now came the

real

sound and fury.

WHAT THIS MEANS

There’s no doubt that we’ll be seeing a side of Thrawn that’s been totally unexplored up until this point. For the most part, we’ve only gotten to know Thrawn as a Grand Admiral in the Imperial navy, both in Legends and the new Canon. The Chiss has been portrayed as cold and cunning, but not necessarily evil. Rather, Thrawn is a man fulfilling his duties at a hyper-competent level, with the best of interests of his people in mind.

Thrawn: Treason

provided us with a good look at the Chiss Ascendancy for the first time in the new Canon, and many of the entities introduced will undoubtedly receive exposition in the upcoming trilogy. Fans can expect to learn a great deal about Chiss society, their political structures and military, and the threats they face from external forces.

The last time a new Thrawn trilogy was launched, it accompanied the character’s debut in

Star Wars Rebels

. Could this trilogy similarly be a backdoor into

his return in the rumored

Rebels

sequel?

Only time will tell. For now, we can all look forward to the beginning of Thrawn’s beginning, and how that will shape into the Grand Admiral he comes to be.