Roasrio Dawson has reportedly been cast to play fan favorite Star Wars character Ashoka Tano in the upcoming second season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.
The character originally appeared in the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series where she was Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan apprentice. The character later appeared on the animated Star Wars: Rebels series. Her voice was also one of those of the Jedi who reached out to Rey in the finale of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Actress Ashley Eckstein has been the one to supply Ashoka’s voice for all of those appearances.
SlashFilm is reporting the story from two independent sources of their own. Lucasfilm, Disney nor Rosario’s reps have commented.
Ahsoka will not be the first character from an animated Star Wars project to cross over to live action. The character of Saw Gerrera also first appeared in the Clone Wars series, before crossing over to the live action film Rogue One, where he was portrayed by Forrest Whitaker.
If the character was going to make her live action appearance anywhere, it doesn’t come as much of a surprise that Ashoka would show up on The Mandalorian. She was co-created by The Clone Wars executive producer Dave Filoni, who directed two episodes of The Mandalorian‘s first season run and is expected to return behind the camera for the second season.
The news comes rather well timed. The story on the most recent episode of the final season of The Clone Wars which premiered today on Disney+ centers on Ashoka and what happened to her immediately after her leaving the Jedi Order following her falling out with the Jedi Council. It is a story arc that fans are hoping will fill in some of the details of what the character did between then and when she appeared in Rebels, which takes place some fifteen years or so later.
