The Star Wars sequel trilogy didn’t get the overwhelmingly positive reception that Disney or Lucasfilm wanted. Fans and critics were both divided regarding the trilogy of movies. The worse hit by this criticism was the movie that was supposed to close the trilogy- 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker.

To make matters worse, any attempts to explore the characters of the original or prequel trilogy were also buried after Solo: A Star Wars Story bombed at the box office. As such, the future of Star Wars seemed uncertain after this.

But everything changed after the release of the Disney+ Star Wars show The Mandalorian. Directed by Dave Filoni, and Iron Man director Jon Favreau, it was Lucasfilm as well as Disney’s first live-action series and it was critically as well as commercially well received.

In fact, many consider it to be the first overall successful Star Wars media under the new Disney leadership. Fans especially loved Grogu and lovingly called him Baby Yoda. Now, as a result of the Mandalorian’s popularity, there’s going to be a host of spin-offs and other Star Wars series on the streamer.

Lucasfilm Brings Animated Characters To Live-Action

The Mandalorian has opened up new and previously unexplored doors for Lucasfilm and Disney. And they are utilizing it to their fullest by introducing characters from the previous well-received animated Star Wars shows.

Honestly, right now, it seems like Lucasfilm is really interested in bringing the animated characters of its previous shows into live-action. These previous shows are Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels.

From these shows, Ahsoka Tano and Bo-Katan Kryze made the jump to live-action in The Mandalorian season 2. Ahsoka Tano is portrayed by Rosario Dawson, and Bo-Katan Kryze was played by Katee Sackhoff who is her long-time voice actor as well.

As such, this has made fans wonder when other popular animated characters would make their live-action jump. Two of the characters fans want to desperately see in live-action are Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Now, if a rumor is to be believed then fans might be seeing these characters in love action really soon.

Ezra Bridger And Thrawn Have Been Cast In Live-Action

A per an LRM Online report, Mena Massoud has been cast as Ezra Bridger, and Lars Mikkelson has been cast to play famous Star Wars antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn. Fans will remember seeing Mena Massoud on Disney’s live-action Aladdin movie.

Both the characters were first introduced in the Star Wars Rebels animated series that ran from 2014 to 2018. Ezra was voiced by Taylor Gray, and Thrawn was voiced by Lars Mikkelsen in the show too. So Lars will be coming back to play the character in live-action after voicing him for so long.

This isn’t surprising because Katee Sackhoff who previously voiced Bo-Katan for years was ultimately cast as the live-action version as well. Also, Lars isn’t the first person in his family who is associated with Star Wars. His younger brother Mads Mikkelson has portrayed Galen Erso in 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Also, we must say that Mena Massoud’s casting as Ezra Bridger isn’t that surprising as well. After all, there were rumors as such for a long time. Also, Massoud himself had teased the possibility of him playing Ezra before on social media.

Rosario Dawson Also Shares Her Excitement For These Castings

On her Instagram story, actress Rosario Dawson has shared a post celebrating the rumored castings of Mena Massoud and Lars Mikkelsen for Ahsoka as Ezra Bridger and Thrawn, respectively. An image of the post can be seen below:

Is A Rebels Spinoff In The Works?

In the final season of Star Wars Rebels, we saw Thrawn and Bridger being taken into hyperspace by the purrgil. Viewers of the animated show will also remember that Ashoka, as well as Sabine Wren, were looking for them. In season 2 of The Mandalorian, it was further clarified that Ahsoka was still looking for Thrawn.

This made fans wonder about Ezra Bridger and if he was even alive in The Mandalorian’s timeline. Also, many asked- was Ahsoka looking for him too? With Thrawn almost confirmed for the Disney+ Star Wars Ahsoka show, this question is on the forefront of people’s minds. Thankfully, right now, this looks like a question that Lucasfilm wants to explore.

But it’s not known whether this will be explored in a new Rebels spin-off show or Ahsoka. However, this isn’t the first time that Rebels characters have been in the news recently.

Star Wars: The Bad Batch Features A Rebels Character

In the debut episode of Star Wars: The Bad Batch, fans saw a young Kanan Jarrus escape from the clones affected by Order 66. After this, in episodes 11 and 12, fans saw the origin story of young Hera Syndulla.

Now, it’s clear that The Bad Batch clearly went out of its way to go back and explore these Rebels characters. As such, the studio seems to be building the foundation for a story that involves the crew.

And with just 3 episodes left to go in the animated series, fans might get a confirmation, either way, sooner or later. So now it’s a game of waiting and watching.

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