Hayden Christensen Returning, Rory McCann Stepping In For Ray Stevenson.

Gosh, it’s been a long time since the season one finale of Ahsoka — one year and seven months. But two teases came out of the Ahsoka panel tonight at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo about season 2, which is going into production next week. First, Hayden Christensen is coming back as Anakin Skywalker — that makes all the sense in the world. Anakin is the Jedi Master of Ahsoka, and the duo have a very complex relationship. But in more news, Game of Thrones‘ actor Rory McCann is stepping in to play evil Jedi Baylan Skol after the death of Ray Stevenson.

Also, Admiral Ackbar is returning — and that’s not a trap. “He’s going head-to-head with Thrawn,” promised Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni.

“It took all of my effort to resist writing the line — ‘It’s a trap!’ Because I’m like, I can’t do that, that would be so lame. Because this guy can’t always get into traps. You’d think he would see it this time,” joked Filoni.

Stevenson died in May 2023 before season one of Ahsoka debuted. He played a key nefarious antagonist who locks horns with Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka. Dawson worked with McCann 20 years ago in Oliver Stone’s Alexander. She concurred with Filoni that when it came to filling in Stevenson’s shoes, it boiled down to an actor and their eyes. McCann possessed that intensity.

Filoni got emotional when remembering Stevenson.

“Season 2 was predictably a big challenge because of losing Ray,” said Filoni.

“I knew Ray from working on voice acting with him,” he said, “It was a challenge for me to consider continuing for a while. But I have a wonderful support group in Jon (Favreau) and Rosario (Dawson)”.

Favreau, Dawson and Christensen were also on stage today in Tokyo with Filoni.

“I found a way in — I had Ray in my head. I’m grateful for all my conversations with him about Baylan. So, I understood what to do, it just took a while to get there. I’m very confident now that Ray would be happy with the direction that we’ve chosen,” added Filoni who made the decision in concert with the late actor’s family.

“The character is meant to be the parallel to Ahsoka in every way. If there’s a light, there’s a dark, and Baylan is representing a different journey for a Jedi as you (Rosario) represent one who walked away from the (Jedi) order, so did he. That’s a parallel that must continue,” said Filoni.

McCann’s credits are numerous including Gladiator II, Hot Fuzz, Jumanji: The Next Level as well as 39 episodes of HBO’s Game of Thrones as Sandor ‘The Hound’ Clegane.

The last we left off in October 2023 with the Ahsoka season one finale, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) made the jump to hyperspace via a space loop while Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), Sabine (Natasha Liu) and Ezra (Eman Esfandi) were marooned in the green tundra tumbleweeds of Peridea in a galaxy far, far away. Thrawn’s m.o. is to reassemble the Empire aka “The Thrawn campaign,” which was a series of military and political maneuvers by the blue man to restore the Empire and implode the New Republic.

Filoini has been a fan of Thrawn since author Timothy Zahn introduced him in the post Return of the Jedi novel Heir to the Empire. “He is the iconic villain. Thrawn doesn’t have the force, but holds his own against everybody.”

Dawson said that she hasn’t read all the scripts for season 2, and that’s because Filoni “keeps re-writing them.”