The Mandalorian might be getting a surprising new character when it returns to Disney + in October: Ahsoka Tano. According to Slashfilm, Rosario Dawson has been cast as the character. If true, it’ll mark the first time that the character has appeared in a live-action Star Wars project.
The character first appeared in the 2007 The Clone Wars theatrical film as an apprentice to Anakin Skywalker, voiced by Ashley Eckstein. Over the course of the series, the young Jedi grew as a character, and became a f fan-favorite. However, she left the Jedi order in Season 5 (today’s new episode of The Clone Wars finally shows off what she was up to), and she appeared in Star Wars Rebels as Fulcrum, an agent providing information to the budding Rebellion against the Empire. The character has also appeared in Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures, and her own novel, Ahsoka, written by E.K. Johnson. Eckstein also voiced a cameo for the character in The Rise of Skywalker.
Some spoilers ahead for The Mandalorian
The Mandalorian has already made a couple of references back to The Clone Wars and Rebels: A Loth-cats shows up in episode 4 of the series, while Moff Gideon (Giancarlo Esposito) closes out Season 1 wielding the Darksaber, a black lightsaber typically wielded by the head of Deathwatch — which played a notable role in both series. Plus, Dave Filoni, who supervised The Clone Wars, Rebels, and Star Wars Resistance, directed a pair of episodes of The Mandalorian’s first season, and returned to direct at least one more in its second. The season has finished its production.
Slashfilm notes that it’s spent a month chasing down the rumor and has confirmed it with two sources, although it hasn’t received word back from Lucasfilm or Dawson’s representatives. Variety has also reported that it’s confirmed the rumor. ABC correspondent Clayton Sandell also confirmed that the character would appear in the series, and that while that Dawson’s name had been “floated”, but said that he couldn’t confirm Slashfilm‘s report. He did indicate that Eckstein wouldn’t portray the character in the series.
A live-action version of Ahsoka Tano appearing in the second season of The Mandalorian is correct. I'd heard a couple names floated (Dawson was indeed one) but I can't confirm the @slashfilm casting scoop. However, I can say Ahsoka will not be played by Ashley Eckstein.
— Clayton Sandell (@Clayton_Sandell) March 20, 2020
Although Eckstein is best-known for voicing the character, Dawson is apparently a fan of the character, tweeting that she’d love to play her when asked by a fan in 2017, and reaffirmed that on Good Morning America not long after.
Dawson is best known for her work in Sin City and Rent, as well as for playing Claire Temple in Marvel’s Netflix shows, Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, and The Defenders. She’s also faced some scrutiny: last October, Dedrek Finley, a trans man who worked for Dawson and her family, filed a discrimination lawsuit against her, alleging assault and verbal abuse.
It’s not known what role Ahsoka could play in The Mandalorian, but now, we’re dying to see her getting called in to help protect a certain child.
Variety is confirming it.
I recognize that part of my irritation right this second is due to being housebound with little to no human interaction, but it would’ve been great if the headline for this was “Rosario Dawson Has Reportedly Been Cast as <REDACTED> in The Mandalorian – Details below the break” so that I could at least try to avoid something that would’ve been amazing to actually be surprised by when the first trailer dropped.
Come on, Tor.com. I’ve also complained about this before. Y’all do a pretty good job of spoiling things for people in titles and thumbnails. Can’t you make a commitment to get it together for people who would rather not know, or who have fallen behind on a tv show or movie and don’t want to accidentally get this weeks episode spoiled? Be better than the other sites. Do the right thing. We are all fans here, we should care enough to look out for each other.
One of the many things I enjoyed about the first season was seeing ordinary people perplexed, in awe of, and inspired by the child’s powers. That shift in POV and scarcity of magic gave the Star Wars universe a sense of wonder it hadn’t had for some time, in my opinion.
So I’m not sure if the series really needs more Force users, especially those who can speak and explain their powers. Nothing against Ashoka, but I think the exploration of people not attached to the Jedi or Sith, away from established brand name characters, is one of its greatest strengths.
@2, @3,
I’m sorry, but casting news is not spoilers. It’s just news. There’s no way to avoid this stuff anymore. Yes, the fact that Asohka will be in The Mandalorian might constitute a spoiler, but by that definition of spoiler, news agencies can’t even post synopses of shows.
As far as the casting news itself goes, my daughter literally screamed her little head off, and ran around the house, then outside, still screaming. I’m surprised my neighbors didn’t call the police.
She was just a tad excited by the news.
@@.-@:
Ahsoka is probably in the show because Sabine is going to be in the show. There’s almost no chance she won’t be now that they’ve introduced the Darksaber into the plot. Sabine and Ahsoka are probably still traveling together looking for Ezra at this point in the timeline.
@@.-@ At the point in history The Mandalorian takes place, Ahsoka is not a Jedi. She was ejected from the order amidst accusations of being a traitor, and even when she was cleared of the charges, she elected not to rejoin the order. The new Clone Wars episode that dropped today on Disney Plus is the first of a four-episode arc that follows Ahsoka in the time after she left the order.
Ahsoka was a bit irritating as a Padawan, but as she matured, I became quite fond of the character. I am eager to see her in live action, and Dawson would be a good actress to play her.
@7
Oh no, that’s exactly where I didn’t want the show to go. Like the recent movies, a bunch of live-action Wookieepedia entries to make fans go wild. Dear oh dear…
@8
I know. Still a brand name character though. The kind of interconnected small universe stuff I wish Star Wars would get away from.
Best news I’ve had in two weeks (thanks coronavirus)!! I love Rosario Dawson as an actress and adore Ahsoka as a character. The fact that they will now be the same person? I can barely even deal with it. Let’s just hope they don’t try to shoehorn in the ‘let’s find Ezra’ plotline into the show as that would probably be too much of a distraction.
Plus it would wreck my hopes for a full show of Sabine and Ahsoka traveling the galaxy righting wrongs and searching for their friend.
@11 Perhaps it will be a pilot for a new series within an episode of an existing show, something that we used to see on TV fairly frequently. I would love to see the continuing adventures of Ahsoka and Sabine.
That’s definitely worth a squee :) (Although I really wish they’d kept it secret).
Not all advance information is a spoiler. A lot of the time, advance info is a teaser — something the creators want us to know in advance to entice us to watch. Something is only a spoiler if it ruins an essential surprise, but surprise is not the only emotion that stories exist to evoke. Making us anticipate something and then paying it off can be as satisfying in its own way as surprising us with something we never anticipated.
Besides, Ahsoka already had a surprise reveal once, in Rebels. It was a delightful surprise when she appeared, but we’ve had that experience already. In this case, they probably gain more making it known ahead of time so that her many fans (and Dawson’s) would be enticed to check out the show if they haven’t already. After all, it’s a streaming show for subscribers only and thus there’s more of a hurdle than there was for a show on basic cable, so it makes sense to do more to attract a potential audience. I know the news makes me more interested in the show.
So why couldn’t Ashley Eckstein, the original voice actress for Ahsoka reprise her role? This wouldn’t be the first time she’s done live action work.
@15/golden: I’ve seen Eckstein’s cosplay as Ahsoka, and I don’t think she looks the part as well as Dawson does — she doesn’t have Ahsoka’s big eyes, plus Dawson’s height and complexion are closer (the adult Ahsoka is 6’2″ with horns, so she might be about 5’8″ without them, and Dawson is 5’7″ while Eckstein is 5’2″).
Still, I hope Dawson has some discussions with her about finding the character’s voice and essence.
It certainly strikes me as possible that this “leak” was deliberately timed to coincide with the character’s reappearance on Clone Wars. Her story was definitely one of the things I was most looking forward to getting back to in that show, and the hype around that reappearance would make sense as a time to make this announcement
@16 Ahsoka is a not human. The person portraying the character doesn’t need to have the same/similar “complexion.” Examples: Zoe Saldana and Karen Gillan as Gamora and Nebula respectively.
@18/postmanblues: Of course not, but it’s an easier makeup job if she does come close naturally. I’m not saying it’s a requirement, just a lucky happenstance. And it’s the least important of her qualifications.
@17:
Yeah, that’s probably not a coincidence. Especially since the final four episodes of The Clone Wars are likely to tie pretty directly into the backstory of The Mandalorian.