‘Ahsoka’ Main Cast on How Their Characters Inspire Them, Lightsaber Training, and Where They Stand at the Beginning of the Story

The main stars from Disney Plus' upcoming Ahsoka, Rosario Dawson (Ahsoka Tano), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Hera Syndulla), and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), stopped by the most recent episode of Entertainment Weekly's Dagobah Dispatch podcast. There, they discussed some of the perks of stepping into the shoes of characters with such a rich backstory and a built-in fandom, lightsaber training, and more.



When asked where Ahsoka Tano is at the beginning of the story, Dawson replied the following:

We know from the end of Rebels and the glimpses we've had in the trailer, that Ahsoka and Sabine will be teaming up for that mission in what looks to be the beginning of the show. From Dawson's words and her episode of The Mandalorian, we understand that her primary objective is to locate Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), but as she also teased, there is another side to that coin -- Ezra Bridger, played in the series by Eman Esfandi. From what Liu Bordizzo later hinted at, it seems like that will be her main goal when embarking on the mission. When asked where and how we find Sabine at the beginning of the story, the actress replied the following:

When it came to preparing for the show, the three of them had no shortage of material to pull from to inspire their performances. Mary Elizabeth Winstead, for instance, has explained before how getting to know Hera from her childhood through The Bad Batch was a huge help for her to understand the character. But for Liu Bordizzo, it was a matter of understanding the character first, and then, when it was time to shoot the live-action series, almost forgetting about all the knowledge she had and letting the character flow through her

This was something Winstead definitely related to, as she explained how the character keeps inspiring her on a daily basis:

Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) in Lucasfilm’s Ahsoka, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.



As we saw in the Ahsoka trailer, there is plenty of lightsaber action. It was revealed at Star Wars Celebration that even Sabine will be picking up a lightsaber to fight Ivanna Sakhno's Shin Hati, but it's clear that the bulk of the action will be on the title character. That meant a lot of training for the actress, as Dawson explained:

As she went on to explain, one of the key figures in bringing Ahsoka's physicality to life was stunt coordinator Ming Qiu, who was very demanding of her actresses and asked for a lot more than they thought at first they could do. And they love her for that:

Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) in Lucasfilm’s Ahsoka, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.



The conversation concluded with Dawson explaining how, even though she can't use the Force in her daily life, she truly believes such an energy field surrounding and binding us all exists, in its own way:

You can listen to the full episode of the podcast here, which contains the entire conversation near the hour mark:







Ahsoka is targeting an August release date on Disney Plus. A second season is reportedly not out of the question, and will depend on the first's performance on the platform. Stay tuned as the marketing campaign starts heating up with the summer.



Click HERE to check out and comment on this topic on our main site