Ahsoka Cast Drops Big Hints About Season 2

Get ready for more of a certain blue villain

The cast of Ahsoka season 2 had plenty to say about the upcoming Star Wars series over the weekend. During a panel at Los Angeles Comic-Con, Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, and Eman Esfandi — who play Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra, respectively — dropped hints about what to expect when the show returns to Disney Plus on January 20, 2027. As per Star Wars News Net, the entirety of the panel was unofficially uploaded to YouTube.

Thrawn is back in a big way

Perhaps the biggest news is that the series will feature much more of an iconic extended universe villain: Thrawn. "So we’re gonna get a lot more time with a very specific war criminal… that everybody really loves to see," Esfandi said.

For those unfamiliar with Thrawn, he first appeared in Timothy Zahn’s now non-canonical Heir to the Empire novel in 1991. In that story, Grand Admiral Thrawn was a genius tactician who led the remnants of the Galactic Empire against the fledgling New Republic. Thrawn went on to appear in several more books by Zahn, proving one of the most popular Star Wars villains of that era. However, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the company declared that novels set in the Expanded Universe were non-canonical, including Thrawn's exploits.

In 2016, Disney announced that Timothy Zahn would return to Star Wars to write Thrawn, a new book about the Imperial tactician. The book tied into the character’s canonical return to the series with his appearance in Star Wars Rebels. As for where Ahsoka comes into this, the show follows several characters from Rebels, including Ezra Bridger, who previously faced off against Thrawn.

Other fan favorites from Rebels will return

Beyond Thrawn, Esfandi hinted that other Rebels characters will be featured prominently in Ahsoka season 2. "And I’m very excited because there were some incredible puppeteers moving Chopper around," Esfandi said, referring to C1-10P (Chopper), the astromech droid who originates from Rebels. "I had the honor of working with them. We all really had the honor of working with him. And I love Chopper, I really do, but if you’ve ever heard of what a diva is on a movie set, Chopper defines it in a new way. You know, [he] sets a new path for droids who can be divas. Huyang’s not really a diva."

"But we get a lot of Chopper, and we also get a lot of other well-beloved characters that we get to spend more time with in live action, and I think everyone’s going to be really happy with them," Esfandi added. While he didn’t specify which characters he was referring to, it seems that many more familiar faces are on the way to Ahsoka.

A focus on outdoor sets

The first season of Ahsoka was one of many Star Wars projects filmed in Disney’s "The Volume," a 270-degree wall of LED screens that digitally creates a background environment around an actor. While initially lauded, some have criticized the technology for limiting the look of modern Star Wars TV series. It seems Ahsoka will be using more practical sets in its second season.

"I have to say what was really nice is that we got to shoot so much more outside," Dawson said. "The first season we did on The Volume, so we were inside for most of it. That was remarkable, the feat of technology, and to come on set every day in the exact same stage and have it be transformed into a completely different planet and place all the time. It was just going for 24 hours, which was incredible."

"But to be outside was really sometimes very brutal, when we were melting because it was super hot or it was freezing cold, or rainy and slippery and all of those different things because we were definitely in the elements," Dawson continued. "But also it was great to feel it, you know, it was great to be in it. It was very cool to have new challenges that pushed our expectations and our limits, and it really just gave it another kind of epic grandeur, to have this space in the distance knowing that all of it was going to be put together later."

Bordizzo added that she also likes "really being outside, not pretending to be outside," and the energy this brings. We’ll see how the switch to practical sets plays out when Ahsoka finally returns this coming January.