Ahsoka Season 2 Is Officially Bringing Back the Best Star Wars Casting I’ve Ever Seen

The trailer has officially dropped for Season 2 of Star Wars: Ahsoka and it looks like it will give us more of what made the inaugural season so good. Rosario Dawson is back as the titular character, while Hayden Christensen returns as Anakin Skywalker. There’s also the anticipated reunion of the team from Star Wars Rebels, as the likes of Sabine, Hera, and Ezra should all end up together at some point. The season also promises more of Grand Admiral Thrawn in live-action than we have ever seen before. Thrawn feels like the great big bad that Star Wars has been lacking for a long time and having a major villain who isn’t a Sith is a fresh take for the franchise. One of the best things about Ahsoka is the way it helps bridge the gap between the era of the Clone Wars and the sequel trilogy, with flashbacks thrown in to help.

Those flashbacks to the Clone Wars were the highlight of Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 1. We got taken back to a time that fans loved and it also gave us a different look at Ahsoka, Anakin, and others when they were younger. That included the single greatest casting choice that Star Wars has put together and we get more of it in the new season.

Ariana Greenblatt Is Perfect As Young Ahsoka

With the Clone Wars taking place so many years before the events of Ahsoka, the show had to cast someone other than Rosario Dawson to play this younger version of Ahsoka. Ariana Greenblatt, who has been great in everything from Barbie to Avengers: Infinity War, was the choice, and she knocked it out of the park. Most people agree that the best episode of Ahsoka was “Part Five: Shadow Warrior”, which saw Ahsoka have visions of Anakin and flashbacks to their time together during the Clone Wars.

Right off the bat, Greenblatt looks like she fits the part and embodies Ahsoka. What makes this casting work so well is that it feels like Greenblatt took inspiration from Ashley Eckstein’s voice performance from the Star Wars: The Clone Wars TV series rather than from Rosario Dawson. While Dawson’s take on Ahsoka is great, it’s imperative that Greenblatt nail what Eckstein did. She brought a youthful energy that made her feel like the Padawan who Anakin called “Snips.”

In just limited screen time, Greenblatt managed to capture the empathy that’s a core element of Ahsoka as a character. It’s part of why she was able to connect with characters like Rex and the Rebels, and why she was so respected by troops during the Clone Wars. Adult Ahsoka also commands respect, so despite feeling different from Dawson’s version of the character, they still feel connected in that sense.

Ahsoka Season 2’s Trailer Gives Us More Of Greenblatt With Hayden Christensen

It wasn’t clear if Ariana Greenblatt would be returning to the role of younger Ahsoka in the newest season, but the trailer reveals that she does. Pretty much every Ahsoka story from the Clone Wars has been told through the animated show, so it could feel odd to keep doing flashbacks. Thankfully, the trailer shows that there are some stories to tell, as it depicts young Ahsoka teaming up with Anakin to fight someone wielding a double-bladed lightsaber. That means we’re getting more of Hayden Christensen and Greenblatt together.

Their chemistry was a big reason why those flashback scenes from Ahsoka Season 1 worked so well. You believed that these were two longtime friends and that there was a mentor/mentee relationship between them. There’s even an adorable TikTok video of the two actors playing around backstage where Greenblatt calls him “SkyGuy,” which was Ahsoka’s nickname for Anakin during the Clone Wars. More of these two sharing the screen will bring back fond memories of Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

There’s also the chance that we get Ahsoka flashbacks that don’t involve Anakin. Now that Greenblatt is a few years older, she can portray the version of Ahsoka who comes into contact with Sabine, Ezra, and the rest of the Ghost crew. It would be a fun twist to have a live-action look at something famous that went down between those characters, or a flashback to something we hadn’t seen yet. We’d get more of Ariana Greenblatt as Ahsoka and it would give her a chance to play a different era of the character.

Before Ahsoka Season 2 arrives in January, you can watch Season 1 on Disney+.

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