Star Wars producers Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni are hard at work prepping their next streaming show, Ahsoka, and have added a relatively unknown actress to the cast in a mystery part. Deadline reports that Ukranian actress Ivanna Sakhno, who previously appeared in Pacific Rim Uprising and the High Fidelity TV show, has come aboard. And while there’s no official word on who she could be playing, we have a wild guess.
Going off looks alone, she could be playing Ar’alani, a Chiss military strategist who rose up in the ranks alongside a better-known Chiss by the name of Thrawn. Now, why make this giant, possibly incorrect leap? Well, don’t forget that when Ahsoka appeared in The Mandalorian season two, she was able to obtain Thrawn’s whereabouts. We also know that, around this time, she and Sabine Wren (likely to be played on this new show by Natasha Liu Bordizzo) went off on a mission to find their friend Ezra Bridger (other rumours, not as concrete as the Sabine ones, potentially place Aladdin’s Mena Massoud in that role). Now, if we know Ahsoka is after Thrawn, and we think Ahsoka is going to see Sabine, to maybe go after Ezra, who was last seen with Thrawn, that there would be other Chiss around seems like a more than fairly reasoned assumption.
Or she’s playing someone completely different.
Nevertheless, Sakhno is likely to join the cast and filming is likely to begin early next year. That would place the Ahsoka show on a trajectory to come out either very late next year or, more likely, in the first half of 2023. Because, don’t forget, The Book of Boba Fett, Andor, Obi-Wan Kenobi and season three of The Mandalorian will have all completed production by the time Ahsoka lights up both of her lightsabers again. (Boba Fett is out next month, and rumours suggest Kenobi could be coming in the spring/summer, followed by Andor in the fall, and then Mandalorian in the winter. Only Fett is official at the moment though.)