With “The Mandalorian” having wrapped its third season, “Star Wars” fans are now looking to the future – namely the premiere of the eight-episode series “Ahsoka” in August.
Rosario Dawson reprises her role as the eponymous Jedi she first played in the second season of “The Mandalorian” and again in “The Book of Boba Fett”.
However the character has long been a part of “Star Wars” lore via “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and more importantly “Star Wars: Rebels”. Numerous characters from the latter will now be making their live-action debut in “Ahsoka” including Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the Twi-lek resistance leader Hera Syndulla.
Winstead, Dawson, and Bordizzo recently spoke with the Dagobah Dispatch podcast at EW, and Winstead says having all that source material available helped her out immensely:
“To have “Rebels” to refer to, and to have [series creator Dave Filoni] to speak to about it every day on set, was a real luxury for sure. Having a character who’s already existed and has such a rich history on something like ‘Rebels,’ as an actor, it’s incredible. Because sometimes we’re tasked with creating our own backstories or trying to flesh out a character that doesn’t really have that much on the page.
So to play a character that has season after season of storylines and complex histories with everyone in their life and relationships and experiences was really something I’ve never experienced quite like that.
Talking about the details of her character, Winstead says she hopes to strike a balance between Hera’s combat prowess and her softer side:
“I see Hera as an incredibly strong but complicated person. She is very maternal, but also she’s the leader of this crew. And as we see, she continues and becomes a general. And so she’s leading quite a lot of people, and she’s become something of a legend in her own right.
Seeing those things combined is very unusual and something that I really wanted to play on screen because that’s such an aspirational thing, I think, as a woman — or just a person — to be able to be all of those things in one.”
Dave Filoni, who created “Star Wars: Rebels” and serves as showrunner on “Ahsoka,” wrote every episode of the new series, directed the pilot, and helmed at least one more episode in the run.
Hayden Christensen, David Tennant, Wes Chatham, Ivanna Sakhno and Ray Stevenson also star in “Ahsoka” which premieres on Disney+ on August 31st.
