‘Ahsoka’: Natasha Liu Bordizzo Posts Picture of Birthday Gift With First Drawing of Her as Sabine and Confirmation of Multiple Actors
Sabine Wren herself, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, posted recently a picture from the set of Ahsoka of the birthday gift the cast and crew gave her. It is a poster, signed by a large portion of the cast and that includes our first sketch of what Natasha will look like as Sabine (see below).
Eagle-eyed Reddit users have identified a large number of the signatures, including those from actors that had been reported to be joining the cast, some new additions, and members of the crew. They include:
- Dave Filoni, who is the creator, writer, executive producer and director of multiple episodes of Ahsoka. His signature is right below Sabine’s drawing.
- Rosario Dawson, who is obviously playing Ahsoka.
- A signature by Ivanna Sakhno, see here. She was reported by Deadline to be joining the series, and shortly after, some rumored character details made their way online. According to The Illuminerdi, she would be playing a character named Astrid, a “striking and ferocious” mercenary who must now choose between two paths — she can either “follow the path of her unit or take hold of her own aspiration in service of her own glory.” Ivanna had already confirmed her casting on Instagram.
- A signature by someone named Mary, who could potentially be Mary Elizabeth Winstead. She was reported to be joining the series earlier this year in an undisclosed role, with speculation pointing towards Hera (more on this later).
- Someone named Ray, who we assume is Ray Stevenson. He is reportedly playing an Admiral, but not Thrawn. See here.
- Brendan Wayne himself. He is one of the actors inside the Mando suit, which could hint at Din Djarin potentially appearing in the series. (We recently speculated that Sabine could be appearing in The Mandalorian season 3.) It’s also possible that they brought him in to play another character in a suit, as Lateef Crowder’s signature hasn’t been spotted.
- Tyler Williams, who is an Emmy-nominated actor from Dear White People and Abbott Elementary, but was also the name of a crew member on Obi-Wan Kenobi. No reports link the actor to the series, so it’s most likely the latter.
- Someone named Vanessa, which could potentially be Vanessa Marshall. She voiced Hera in Star Wars: Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Star Wars: Squadrons, and could be the next animation actress to make the jump to live-action after Katee Sackhoff. However, it is also rumored that Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be playing the character in live-action, and if Vanessa Marshall was playing Hera, Lucasfilm probably wouldn’t have allowed her signature on the poster. But it is still a possibility that we should keep in mind. You can check out here Marshall’s signature and compare the two to judge for yourself.
- Someone named Shakira, who is most likely GLOW actress Shakira Barrera. Rumors about her involvement in the Ahsoka series started circulating earlier this year, and may have been confirmed now.
- Someone named R.J. The obvious (and extremely unlikely) option is Rian Johnson, who obviously directed The Last Jedi. There are, however, some arguments to be made for his involvement (even if the handwriting doesn’t really match his). First, after the mixed fan reception of his Star Wars movie back in 2017, Lucasfilm has not exactly rushed to make the trilogy they had reportedly given him before The Last Jedi came out. However, neither party ever said the deal was off, and it is possible that Lucasfilm saw an opportunity in their Disney Plus slate to bring Johnson slowly back into the Star Wars galaxy, and test the waters with the fans. He is a prolific television director, who helmed three of the best episodes of Breaking Bad, including the season 5 episode Ozymandias, widely praised as one of the best episodes in television history. Why Ahsoka? As Dave Filoni revealed in The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, it was Johnson that made Dave Filoni feel like directing live-action “was something [he] could do”, so it would be a nice way of coming full circle. All of this being said, we should stress it is very unlikely Rian Johnson will ever return to direct Star Wars, let alone an episode of Ahsoka, so we’ll label this as a pipe dream for The Last Jedi fans for now.
Another possibility that has been floated around Reddit is another Breaking Bad connection, RJ Mitte, who played Walter Jr. in that show. Mitte has not been linked to Ahsoka so far, so this is still a wild guess. The most likely scenario is that this is someone we don’t know about, and probably a member of the crew. - Someone named Rick, which could potentially be Rick Famuyiwa. He directed on both seasons 1 and 2 of The Mandalorian, and is coming back for at least a couple of episodes of season 3, where he will also be an executive producer. While he wasn’t involved with The Book of Boba Fett, he could potentially direct an episode of Ahsoka. So far, we only know about Dave Filoni and Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse‘s Peter Ramsey directing. Most likely, though, this will be any other of the millions of Ricks working in Hollywood at the moment.
- Someone named Yvette, who has seemingly been identified as Yvette Marxer, a sound technician on The Mandalorian.
Additionally, some Reddit users have also spotted some resemblance between the handwriting on one of the messages (which is suspiciously missing a signature) and Mark Hamill’s (see a side-by-side comparison here). Hamill has been very involved with the young version of Luke that has been featured in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and given the last dialogue scene between Ahsoka and Luke in Chapter 6 of The Book of Boba Fett, it’s been widely speculated that the two will meet again in the new spin-off show. We might even see how they met for the first time.
And last but not least, there are three signatures that either haven’t been spotted or are missing. Hayden Christensen, who was reported to be reprising the role of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka last October (and who Lucasfilm is still trying to keep under wraps), is nowhere to be found on this poster. Also missing are the actors playing Ezra and Thrawn. Obviously, we don’t know everyone that signed, but the two names that are thrown around the most for these characters, Mena Massoud and Lars Mikkelsen, respectively, are nowhere to be found here. There are two possible scenarios for the actors playing these roles — either Lucasfilm prohibited them from signing this poster (a precaution they didn’t take with Brendan Wayne, for instance), or they aren’t on set. All three parts will most likely be rather small, especially Hayden’s — he will most likely only interact with Rosario Dawson and might film his scenes under several layers of security.
It should still be said, though, that we don’t know for sure that Ezra and Thrawn are appearing in the series, as neither Lucasfilm nor any of the trades have confirmed their involvement, so we are mostly guessing here. If they are in it, they will most likely appear towards the end, as the series could play as a “Search for Ezra/Thrawn” adventure, given the setup in The Mandalorian season 2. We could potentially get official confirmation in a few days during D23, though if Lucasfilm has come this far without any leaks on who is playing these two characters, they might take their chances and wait for a reveal next year, either during Celebration or when the series airs. No release window has been provided yet, but with The Mandalorian airing through February, March, and potentially part of April, it is unlikely Ahsoka will come out before May or even June.
Check out the full post here (hat tip to r/StarWarsLeaks):
Did we miss any signatures? Can you spot some of the ones we couldn’t find? Let us know in the comments!
Miguel Fernández is a Spanish student that has movies as his second passion in life. His favorite movie of all time is The Lord of the Rings, but he is also a huge Star Wars fan. However, fantasy movies are not his only cup of tea, as movies from Scorsese, Fincher, Kubrick or Hitchcock have been an obsession for him since he started to understand the language of filmmaking. He is that guy who will watch a black and white movie, just because it is in black and white.
