Star Wars: Ahsoka Reveals Barbie Actress as Surprise Character

Star Wars: Ahsoka has absolutely been full of surprises thus far, putting Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and a number of other characters through the proverbial wringer. The series’ newly-released fifth episode was absolutely no exception, playing off of the previous cliffhanger ending with great fanfare, and utilizing the World Between Worlds to tell a fascinating Star Wars story. In the process, the episode featured an appearance from one of the stars of the recent Barbie movie — as a surprising character. Obviously, spoilers for Episode 5 of Star Wars: Ahsoka, “Shadow Warrior”, lurk below! Only look if you want to know!

Much of the episode concerned Ahsoka and her former Master, Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), reuniting in the World Between Worlds. Anakin reveals that their meeting is happening in order to teach Ahsoka a lesson of whether or not she wants to live and continue fighting to save her friends. After a brief lightsaber duel, Anakin sends Ahsoka crashing down into a flashback — of their time fighting together in the Clone Wars. In this sequence, as well as a later look at the Siege of Mandalore, Ahsoka is much younger, and is portrayed by Ariana Greenblatt.

What Movies Has the Young Ahsoka Actress Been In?

At the age of only 16, Greenblatt has already accumulated a pretty prolific filmography. She portrayed the younger version of Zoe Saldana’s Gamora in Avengers: Infinity War, as well as Sasha this year’s Barbie, making her the second actress (alongside Saldana) to appear in two different billion-dollar franchises. Her filmography also includes Stuck in the Middle, 65, and Love and Monsters. She is also set to play Tiny Tina in the forthcoming Borderlands live-action movie.

“I mean, the biggest thing that’s similar is, the imagination because obviously there isn’t this humongous monster Thanos standing in front of me,” Greenblatt previously told ComicBook.com of her work on Love and Monsters. “So, one of the scenes he was in this like motion capture suit, and then he had this huge backpack on which had like this pole sticking out, and then like a cardboard cutout of Thanos’ head. So it was definitely hard to like, imagine that I’m speaking and talking to Josh Brolin, cause I like to like connect a lot to people’s eyes when acting especially scenes like that. So it was definitely weird to like, look up and look at a little cardboard cutout. But he definitely made it so easy. He was so amazing. So definitely familiar with the green screens and the crazy eyelines and stuff like that for sure.”

What Is Star Wars: Ahsoka About?

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, which premiered on August 22nd on the streamer. The series picks up after the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which we saw the former Jedi searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and helping Luke Skywalker train Grogu. Ahsoka will be joined on her new mission alongside longtime allies Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as they attempt to track down Thrawn, who was last seen disappearing to the far reaches of space after a confrontation with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Star Wars: Ahsoka is the latest live-action series from Lucasfilm’s creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

New episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka debut on Tuesdays exclusively on Disney+. If you haven’t signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here. 

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