Ezra Bridger is the latest animated Star Wars character to make the jump into live action, with Eman Esfandi (Red 11, King Richard) signing on to play the young hero of Star Wars Rebels in Lucasfilm’s upcoming Disney+ series Star Wars: Ahsoka.
The series sees Esfandi joining Rosario Dawson in the title role as Ahsoka Tano, the fan-favourite Jedi from Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, who made her own live-action debut in The Mandalorian last year before returning in the spinoff Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett.
Esfandi’s Ezra isn’t the only member of the Rebels crew to appear in the series, with Natasha Liu Bordizzo (The Society) portraying the Mandalorian Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla and droid Chopper also confirmed. There’s no word on who’ll be playing Hera, but the cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Birds of Prey) and Ivanna Sakhno (Pacific Rim: Uprising) in as-yet-unrevealed roles.
For those unfamiliar with Star Wars Rebels, the Dave Filoni-created animated series took place in the years building up to Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope and followed a cell of the fledgling Rebel Alliance. Among them was Ezra Bridger, a young Jedi hopeful, who was transported to parts unknown alongside the Empire’s Grand Admiral Thrawn in the series finale.
Rebels concluded with a tease that Sabine and Ahsoka would begin a search for their missing friend, and as we saw in Ahsoka’s appearance in The Mandalorian, the former Jedi is still hunting Thrawn, who also seems a cert to be included in the cast of the Ahsoka live-action series (Thor’s Ray Stevenson is on board as an Imperial admiral, although it’s been said this is not Thrawn, but rather another character).
SEE ALSO: Star Wars Rebels: An Overlooked But Essential Part of the Franchise
Star Wars: Ahsoka is coming to Disney+ in 2023. Let’s hope we get a trailer from Disney’s D23 Expo this weekend.
Via Cinelinx