Thrawn. The other reason we like these characters, and the entire reason anybody is excited to see the blue guy is Zahn’s writing. The way he was written, and, in fact, how perfectly Zahn’s mystery-detective-plans-within-plans writing style lends itself to this type of character, is the reason I and others gasped at the name drop in that Mando S2 episode, it’s the reason live action Pellaeon made some people (ok maybe also me…) giddy.
That’s also why I’m excited to see Thrawn.
But it wouldn’t surprise me to learn that more people exist who only know Thrawn from the Rebels incarnation. And it’s very likely this is how Filoni will depict him. I haven’t seen much of Rebels, but the little I’ve seen or absorbed via osmosis feels like a very different vibe than Zahn’s military sci-fi-ish stories with their tech-centric plots involving cloning cylinders and cloaking devices and remote-controlled starships. Zahn’s Thrawn is always applying technology in innovative ways to further military objectives, very often to make up for what he lacks in conventional resources and manpower.
The Rebels version of Thrawn’s story involves giant wolves and magical space whales. I mean I guess that’s theoretically no more outlandish than ysalamiri, but Zahn’s ideas generally have well-defined parameters and serve very practical story purposes. I forgot the particular story-driven purpose of the space whales in Rebels, but I think it was just mostly created as a cool visual fantasy element to liven up a space battle.