Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays the Twi'lek rebel Hera Syndulla in the upcoming Star Wars series Ahsoka, had little trouble stepping into the role.
On Entertainment Weekly's Dagobah Dispatch podcast, Winstead said that her character's central role on the animated Star Wars Rebels meant that Hera already had a rich history to draw from. "Having a character who's already existed and has such a rich history on something like Rebels, as an actor, it's incredible," Winstead said. "Because sometimes we're tasked with creating our own backstories or trying to flesh out a character that doesn't really have that much on the page. And so to play a character that has season after season of storylines and complex histories with everyone in their life and relationships and experiences was really something I've never experienced quite like that."
The fact that Dave Filoni is the creator of both shows also helped, according to Winstead, because it meant she had easy access to an expert on her character while filming Ahsoka. "To have Rebels to refer to, and to have [Filoni] to speak to about it every day on set, was a real luxury for sure," Winstead said. Filoni has been involved with many recent Star Wars shows in some capacity, going all the way back to The Clone Wars in 2008. In April, Lucasfilm announced that Filoni will helm a Star Wars feature film which serves as the culmination of the storylines running through The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Hera Syndulla
Hera first appeared in Star Wars Rebels back in 2014. In the animated series, which took place 14 years after Revenge of the Sith, Hera was a revolutionary leader with the Rebel Alliance who fought the Empire on the rebel ship Ghost. While Hera was voiced by Vanessa Marshall on Rebels, it was announced in April that Winstead would portray the character in the live-action Ahsoka. In previous interviews, Winstead said that Hera appears as a celebrated general in the upcoming show, and is still the same "strong badass mother figure" from Rebels. Other Rebels characters who will appear in Ahsoka include the Mandalorian Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), the Jedi Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), and the fan-favorite Legends villain Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).
Winstead is known for her work in sci-fi and comic book movies. In 2009, she starred as Ramona Flowers in the offbeat action movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, based on the graphic novel series by Bryan Lee O'Malley. She also starred in the 2016 film 10 Cloverfield Lane, the second entry in J.J. Abrams' Cloverfield franchise. More recently, she portrayed the vigilante Huntress in the DC Extended Universe film Birds of Prey.
Ahsoka premieres in August 2023 on Disney+.
Source: Dagobah Dispatch Podcast, via ComicBook.com