When the cast was announced for Star Wars Episode 9, a happy surprise was seeing British character actor Richard E. Grant on the sheet. The Spice World and Logan actor is a popular favorite, and the Internet immediately began buzzing with possible roles he could be playing. And as so often does in the Twitter-sphere, those casting wish lists somehow got turned into rumors which eventually found their way to Grant.
It seems the widest fan theory is that Grant might be playing Grand Admiral Thrawn, the pre-Disney villain who recently crossed into canon as part of Star Wars Rebels. Thrawn is seen as one of the most formidable villains in all of Star Wars, and bringing him to the big screen would be a huge deal. Unfortunately, that's not who Grant is playing according to the man himself in an interview with Radio Times...
“I’m not playing the ‘Star Wars’ character you just mentioned. I’m not allowed to tell you anything. Otherwise I would be fired. It’s a complete lockdown on any information whatsoever.”
Of course he's not going to say anything, and probably half the people out there won't believe him, anyway. Frankly, we don't even know if Grant is playing a villain at all. He might be a totally CGI character and we never see his face on the screen, we don't know anything and rumors about Thrawn are as substantial as vapor.
That said, I really wish Grant was playing Thrawn. Look at how excited he was just to learn he'd be won a role.
From left of field, came a call from my Agent about a generic audition scene I’d self taped a couple of months ago ....... @starwars courtesy of casting director #Nina Gold #Star Wars pic.twitter.com/zmGCHIlheu— Richard E. Grant (@RichardEGrant) August 5, 2018
Star Wars: Episode 9 opens December 2019.
