The popular Star Wars: Ahsoka director Dave Filoni shares the difficulty he faced in transforming Grand Admiral Thrawn into a character of the live-action Disney+ series. Filoni initially added the smart Imperial character to the official Star Wars Universe as a major antagonist in Star Wars: Rebels Season 3.
The villain recently made his live-action debut in Ahsoka Season 1, which was played by Lars Mikkelsen, the same character who voiced the character in his animated form. Talking to Empire magazine (via ScreenRant), Filoni shares his wish to get Thrawn’s live-action look absolutely perfect, a challenge that came down to figuring out how blue his skin can be made.
He revealed that Lucasfilm’s StageCraft technology, also known as the Volume, casts a magenta tone on the actors. He stated that it became essential to fix Mikkelsen’s makeup according to the stage he was filming on. Filoni said:
It's amazing how many versions of [Thrawn’s make-up] went through the make-up team. The Volume set where Lars would do a decent amount of shooting casts a magenta tone. So with his colour palette, we had to dial it differently depending on what stage he was at.
Why did Lucasfilm’s Volume technology prove to be a challenge?
Before Disney began their live-action Star Wars TV shows, George Lucas planned on making his own television series dubbed Star Wars: Underworld. However, the cost of producing the show’s extensive special effects eventually delayed the project from continuing. The Mandalorian director Jon Favreau and Industrial Light and Magic eventually pioneered the use of a 360-degree LED soundstage, allowing photo-realistic computer backgrounds to be rendered in real-time.
This greatly transformed the way in which both his show and future Star Wars projects might be made at a fraction of the price of classic blue-screen technology. While it has many advantages, the Volume’s technology is famous for causing some issues for performers. In the past, other Star Wars actors like The Mandalorian’s Bill Burr have discussed the Volume’s propensity to cause a sense of vertigo while the background shits to match camera movements.
Moreover, its illusion only works if specific major conditions are met like lighting and the performers’ grouping on set in tandem with the projected backgrounds. Following Filoni’s latest show with Mikkelsen’s time as Thrawn, it’s evident that the Volume is a new technology, and there’s a whole process of learning from its drawbacks. However, considering Star Wars and its emerging film technologies, we’re sure the technology will keep evolving, owing to the lessons learned on Ahsoka.
