Details regarding the second season of Star Wars spinoff series The Mandalorian remain scarce at this point, but a new rumor suggests that a beloved character from Star Wars: The Clone Wars could finally be making her live-action debut when the Disney+ series returns.
Daredevil and Luke Cage actress Rosario Dawson will reportedly play the live-action version of Ahsoka Tano, the Jedi apprentice who was one of the lead characters in the award-winning animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and later returned in Star Wars: Rebels. SlashFilm initially reported the casting news, citing two unidentified sources.
If the report proves true, it would mean one of the most popular — and arguably, one of the most important — characters from the period of the franchise’s history only chronicled in the animated series is finally making the leap to Star Wars’ live-action universe. First introduced in The Clone Wars, Ahsoka was the padawan (the Jedi term for apprentice) to Jedi master Anakin Skywalker, and much of the long-running series focused on her adventures alongside her mentor and Jedi master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin’s former mentor.
Over the course of the series, which was set in the period between Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Ahsoka evolved from an impetuous student to a capable Jedi warrior — all while observing the events that would eventually lead to her mentor turning against the Jedi. Although Ahsoka wasn’t initially embraced by Star Wars fans, she quickly grew into one of the more complicated, beloved characters in the franchise as the animated series progressed.
While Ahsoka didn’t make an appearance in any of the nine live-action Star Wars films, her voice was one of several Jedi voices heard by Rey in the climactic final scene in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In that film, as well as both The Clone Wars and Rebels, Ahsoka was voiced by actress Ashley Eckstein.
Dave Filoni, who serves as a writer, producer, and director on several episodes of The Mandalorian, was also the director and producer on The Clone Wars and creator of Rebels, which would likely play into Ahsoka’s addition to the Disney+ live-action series. The nature of her role in the series remains a mystery, but her fictional history has included several key story arcs involving the race of Mandalorians, as well as the Darksaber — the unique lightsaber revealed to be in the possession of Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) in the first season’s final episode.
The Mandalorian is expected to return to Disney+ for season 2 in October.
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