This has been a big week on the Star Wars news front. In addition to The Book of Boba Fett wrapping up its seven-episode run on Disney+, it was also announced that the Ewan McGregor-led Obi-Wan Kenobi series will premiere on May 25. Now today brings word that the Ahsoka series has added a new cast member, and the name will be familiar to Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars fans.
Ray Stevenson, who voiced Mandalorian antagonist Gar Saxon in two episodes of Star Wars Rebels and then reprised the character for two episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 7, will be joining Rosario Dawson in Ahsoka. However, considering that Gar Saxon died during Rebels, naturally Stevenson won’t be playing this role again since Ahsoka is spinning out of The Mandalorian, which takes place half a decade after Return of the Jedi.
Instead, THR has heard from its sources that Ray Stevenson will play an admiral in Ahsoka, but before some of you get too excited, this isn’t Grand Admiral Thrawn. That Star Wars villain, who was introduced decades ago in the Legends continuity and was brought into the main canon as the main antagonist for Star Wars Rebels’ latter two season, is expected to show up in this series since Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano said she was looking for Thrawn in The Mandalorian episode “The Jedi.” Since Stevenson’s character is identified as a villain, he’ll almost certainly be one of Thrawn’s cohorts who’s clinging to the remnants of the Empire.
Outside of the Star Wars universe, Ray Stevenson has other geek cred from playing Frank Castle, a.k.a. The Punisher, in Punisher: War Zone, as well as Volstagg in the first three Thor movies. Stevenson also starred as Firefly in G.I. Joe: Retaliation and Marcus Eaton in two Divergent movies, while over in the TV realm, he’s recognizable as Dexter’s Isaak Sirko and Blackbeard in Black Sails, among other shows.
Ray Stevenson is the sixth cast member to be added to Disney+’s Ahsoka. Last October, almost a year after it was announced that Rosario Dawson’s character was getting her own live-action series, it was revealed that Hayden Christensen will reprise Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka following his outing as the character in Darth Vader form for Obi-Wan Kenobi. One month later, The Society’s Natasha Liu Bordizzo was cast as Sabine Wren, one of Star Wars Rebels’ main characters who was voiced in the animated series by Tiya Sircar. Ahsoka has also cast Birds of Prey’s Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Pacific Rim: Uprising’s Ivanna Sakhno in undisclosed roles.
Other than Ahsoka Tano being on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, which is undoubtedly tied to her and Sabine Wren’s quest to find the missing Ezra Bridger, no specific Ahsoka plot details have been divulged yet. Shooting on the Disney+ series is reportedly expected to begin in Los Angeles at the end of April, so don’t expect to see it premiere until sometime next year. Keep your eyes peeled on CinemaBlend for more news on Ahsoka and other upcoming Star Wars shows.
