The endeavor to locate Ezra Bridger, alternatively known as the search for Ezra or the quest for Grand Admiral Thrawn, was an operation launched to recover both the Jedi Ezra Bridger and the Grand Admiral Thrawn during the New Republic Era. The campaign to free the planet Lothal from the control of the Galactic Empire culminated in the Ghost crew's final mission, which saw Bridger and Thrawn vanish together. The young Jedi had employed the star whales known as purrgil to defeat Thrawn in the Battle of Lothal, resulting in both being exiled and presumed dead. Years later, following the conclusion of the Galactic Civil War, Sabine Wren and former Jedi Ahsoka Tano initiated a new mission: to find Ezra and prevent Thrawn's potential return as the Empire's heir.
In the years that followed Ezra Bridger and Thrawn's disappearance, the once seemingly unbeatable Empire started to crumble. The previously small Rebellion grew bolder, and the reign of terror of Emperor Palpatine across the galaxy ended with the decisive victory at the battle of Endor. Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano set out on their mission to locate the missing Bridger. Simultaneously, the former Jedi and Professor Huyang instructed Wren in Jedi practices until they parted ways. Wren chose to remain on Lothal, protecting the planet and its people that Bridger held dear, residing in LothalNet comm tower E-272, Bridger's old hiding spot, for several years after the war. Despite the Empire's fall and the rise of a New Republic, nefarious agents of the Imperial Remnants were secretly working to find the lost Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn and bring him back from exile. Despite his vanishing and the lack of confirmation of his death at Lothal years before, Ahsoka Tano began to hear rumors of Thrawn's possible return, leading her to begin her search for the missing Grand Admiral in 9 ABY, which resulted in the capture of Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, Thrawn's ally and a Nightsister witch. Through Elsbeth, Tano discovered a secret map essential to their plans.
While being transported to the New Republic for trial, Morgan Elsbeth successfully escaped prisoner custody with assistance from mercenary Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati. After Ahsoka Tano found the map on Arcana, she reunited with Sabine Wren on Lothal to find answers, but Hati managed to retrieve the map and defeat Wren in a lightsaber duel. Following a discovery at New Republic shipyards, General Hera Syndulla faced political challenges within the New Republic and risked her own career to help her friends, as senators met the search for Bridger and the perceived threat of Grand Admiral Thrawn's return with skepticism. Meanwhile, Tano and Wren traveled to Seatos, where they engaged Hati and Skoll in both a space battle and lightsaber combat. Ultimately, Wren surrendered the map to Skoll, who promised to reunite her with Bridger, allowing Elsbeth's forces to use the map and the Eye of Sion to complete an extragalactic journey beyond the galaxy. Tano, using the purrgil, followed them as the quest reached the planet Peridea.
Despite the efforts of Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger to prevent it, Grand Admiral Thrawn successfully escaped his exile aboard his Star Destroyer, the Chimaera, aided by Morgan Elsbeth, the Great Mothers, and their dark magick. Now free from exile, Thrawn and the Great Mothers journeyed to the Nightsister homeworld of Dathomir. Unbeknownst to Thrawn, Bridger also managed to escape aboard the Chimaera, while Tano and Wren found themselves stranded on Peridea.
Early in the Rebellion, Grand Admiral Thrawn was assigned the task of suppressing the persistent rebels operating in the Lothal sector. The Grand Admiral decisively defeated Phoenix Cell during the Battle of Atollon. However, the Lothal rebels—including Captain Hera Syndulla, Lasat Garazeb Orrelios, Mandalorian Sabine Wren, and Jedi Knight Kanan Jarrus along with his Padawan Ezra Bridger—managed to escape and regroup with the Rebel Alliance. They subsequently broke away to join the local resistance led by Ryder Azadi to assist in liberating Bridger's homeworld of Lothal from Thrawn's control.
Both Jarrus and Bridger ultimately sacrificed themselves to defeat the Galactic Empire on Lothal. During the Battle of Lothal, Bridger summoned a group of purrgil to attach themselves to Thrawn's Star Destroyer and propel it into hyperspace towards deep space. In the following years, the Rebel Alliance proceeded to declare a New Republic and defeat the Empire across the galaxy, while the prolonged disappearance of both Bridger and Thrawn led to the assumption of their deaths.
While Syndulla advanced to the rank of general in the New Republic, Wren chose to remain on Lothal to protect Bridger's people. She was eventually joined by the former Jedi and rebel spymaster Ahsoka Tano, who had previously been saved by Bridger from her own former master, Darth Vader. Tano took on Wren as her own Padawan, and together they came to believe that Bridger was still alive, prompting them to begin their search. Around the same time, Imperial loyalists had also begun their search for Thrawn.
In the years after the Battle of Jakku, the New Republic underestimated the threat posed by the Imperial Remnants, believing them to be scattered and ineffective. Unbeknownst to them, many of these remnants had reorganized into a new Shadow Council dedicated to restoring Imperial rule to the galaxy. Rumors began to surface, reaching both the New Republic and Imperial remnants, about the imminent return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Council members like Captain Gilad Pellaeon, who had served Thrawn during the Galactic Civil War, and Commandant Brendol Hux believed that the Grand Admiral's return would revitalize the Imperial military and worked to maintain secrecy around it. While few rumors of Thrawn spread, others, such as Moff Gideon doubted the former's return to the galaxy and resolved to claim leadership.
Despite the efforts of Pellaeon and the Shadow Council to keep Thrawn's return a secret, this information eventually reached New Republic allies like Ahsoka Tano, who set out to prevent the Grand Admiral's allies and subordinates from facilitating his return.
Wren and Tano initiated their search for Bridger around 5 ABY, five years after Tano's promise to Bridger that she would find him upon her return. It was during this period that Tano accepted Wren, who wielded Ezra's second lightsaber, as her Padawan. As part of their efforts, the pair ventured into the Unknown Regions. However, their relationship faced challenges, leading them to eventually separate. Wren returned to Lothal, while Tano continued her travels across the galaxy.
By 9 ABY, Tano had received information suggesting that Thrawn was still alive and that Imperial loyalists were actively searching for him. Her search for Thrawn led her to the planet Corvus, where she sought out Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth, a Nightsister witch from Dathomir and an ally of Thrawn's during the Imperial rule. On Corvus, she also encountered the Mandalorian bounty hunter Din Djarin, who arrived with his ward Grogu in the hope that Tano could train the Child, having been directed to Tano by her old friend and former Mand'alor Bo-Katan Kryze, who was engaged in her own search for the Darksaber. With Djarin's assistance, Tano liberated the city of Calodan, captured Elsbeth, and handed her over to her old ally, General Hera Syndulla. She also declined to train Grogu, despite Djarin's warning about him being hunted by Gideon's Imperial remnant, suggesting instead that he take the Child to the seeing stone to reach out to any Jedi who might take on the youngling.
Tano's interrogation of Elsbeth revealed the location of a Nightsister stronghold on the planet [Arcana](/article/arcana], where she retrieved an ancient compass from the temple. However, Tano was attacked by five of Elsbeth's HK-87 assassin droids, which destroyed the temple using self-destruct after failing to prevent her from taking the map. Meanwhile, during Tano's search, Elsbeth was liberated from New Republic imprisonment by former Jedi Knight Baylan Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati, who were working for the witch as mercenaries alongside the former Imperial Inquisitor Marrok. At Syndulla's suggestion, Tano returned to Lothal aboard her T-6 shuttle to enlist Wren's help in her search for Thrawn. Wren unlocked the compass, revealing a star map, but before she could share it with Tano, she was attacked by Hati, who reclaimed the compass.
One of the droids captured from Elsbeth led Tano and Syndulla to a facility in the Santhe Shipyards on Corellia, where they discovered that Elsbeth's operations were still ongoing through Imperial loyalists. Although Republic forces arrived to shut down Elsbeth's operation, Imperial loyalists managed to transport one final hyperdrive offworld while Marrok stalled Tano in a lightsaber duel. Syndulla's droid C1-10P "Chopper" placed a homing beacon on the transport, which they tracked to the planet Seatos in the Denab system.
At a henge on Seatos, Elsbeth unlocked the compass, revealing a star map of the legendary Pathway to Peridea that led to another galaxy, where she believed Thrawn had been banished by Bridger. As part of their efforts to recover Thrawn, Elsbeth oversaw the construction of the Eye of Sion, a massive hyperspace transport ring with numerous hyperdrive cores, including the final one from Corellia.
After Wren's recovery, Tano returned to Lothal and found her near the Spectres mural, reflecting on the history of her rebel family. Tano brought Wren aboard her ship, where she and Huyang continued Wren's Jedi training while en route to the Denab system. Upon exiting hyperspace near Seatos, their shuttle was attacked by starfighter squadrons led by Hati and Marrok. Elsbeth's forces disabled their shuttle, but Wren managed to restore it while Tano defended her from outside the ship in space. Huyang scanned the Eye of Sion and identified it as a hyperspace ring. Tano and Wren then evaded Hati and Marrok by navigating through purrgil in Seatos' atmosphere and landing in the planet's forest, where they powered down. In response, Skoll deployed scout guards and assassin droids to hunt them down.
After being attacked by scout guards, Tano and Wren pursued Elsbeth's forces into the forest, where they were met by Marrok and Hati. As Hati and Wren dueled, Tano defeated Marrok and continued to the henge, where she confronted Baylan Skoll. Skoll overpowered Tano, knocking her down a cliff, but Wren arrived and seized the compass, threatening to destroy it. However, Skoll convinced Wren to hand over the compass in exchange for the promise of reuniting with Ezra. With the hyperspace calculations complete, Skoll and Hati took Wren aboard the Eye of Sion with Elsbeth and jumped to hyperspace.
Acting without authorization, General Syndulla arrived in the Denab system aboard the Ghost with a squadron of New Republic pilots, but they were unable to intercept the Eye of Sion. The survivors landed on Seatos, where, with the help of Jacen Syndulla, they rescued Tano from Seatos' sea. Three Defender-class cruisers commanded by Captain Girard arrived to apprehend the rogue pilots. However, Carson Teva managed to stall Girard long enough for Tano and Huyang to escape into hyperspace inside a purrgil, hoping it would take them to Elsbeth's destination.
The quest for Ezra Bridger involving Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano was first introduced in the 2018 series finale of Star Wars Rebels, "Family Reunion – and Farewell." When questioned about a potential "Sabine Wren Ahsoka Tano show" by Donald Faison, Rebels executive producer Dave Filoni declined to provide any definitive answers. One year after the Rebels finale, Filoni posted an image on Twitter depicting Sabine Wren and Ahsoka Tano during their search. It was first identified as the "search for Ezra" in the 2018 issue Star Wars Helmet Collection 74 and the 2019 reference book Ultimate Star Wars, New Edition. The storyline was subsequently continued in the 2023 television series Ahsoka, which centered on the search for Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn. The "quest for Ezra Bridger" made its first onscreen appearance in "Part Three: Time to Fly" by Hamato Xiono. The phrase "search for Grand Admiral Thrawn" was used in the 2023 issue Star Wars Insider 218 and the episode description for "Part Six: Far, Far Away" on Disney+.
The 2018 reference book Star Wars: Women of the Galaxy initially placed the scene from Rebels around 5 ABY. "Part Two: Toil and Trouble", the second episode of Ahsoka, later depicted the same scene with some minor differences and continued the storyline, moving the scene to around 9 ABY instead. The 2023 reference book Star Wars: Timelines still provides a "circa 5 ABY" start date for the search, but does not explicitly state that this date refers to the moment from Rebels. Therefore, this article assumes the following: Tano and Wren began their search around 5 ABY, only to separate, as described in Ahsoka. They resumed their search around 9 ABY. This article considers the Ahsoka depiction of the Rebels epilogue as canonical due to it being the most recent depiction.
The search for Thrawn was parodied in "The Light Side" comic strip from the Launchpad entry in Star Wars Insider 203. In this strip, Tano finally manages to corner Thrawn, only to become enraged when she discovers that Thrawn has concealed himself among a group of blue aliens and droids.