News of The Mandalorian's next season featuring Rosario Dawson in the role of Ahsoka Tano is exciting for many reasons. Fans of the actress look forward to her Star Wars debut, lovers of the animated properties appreciate the adaptation of an animated character to live-action and viewers of other animated characters can fantasize all the more about their own personal favorites making the same jump. In fact, if Ahsoka is going to make the transition, then Sabine Wren almost certainly will as well.
The jump to The Mandalorian is neither the first time an animated character from Star Wars was adapted to live-action nor the first time Ahsoka, in particular, has made a jump from one series to another. The Clone Wars' Saw Gerrera, introduced as a political extremist willing to go to any means necessary in pursuit of his goals, appeared in Rogue One, portrayed by actor Forrest Whitaker. Ahsoka herself, despite starting in The Clone Wars, later appeared in the animated Rebels.
The similarity between both of those jumps is that they made complete sense for the characters involved, both in terms of the growth of their personal arcs and in the context of the separate projects they appeared in. Whether it was Ahsoka's growth as a Jedi or Gerrera's story of being a young rebel blinded by his own convictions before becoming a leader at the end of his life, much of his successes hollowed by the means he took to achieve them, the transitions made sense. And no series-jump could make more sense than Sabine going from Rebels to The Mandalorian.
Being a Mandalorian herself, Sabine's fit for the series is only natural. But even deeper than that, the move would represent a natural progression of her character arc throughout Rebels. Though the Mandalorian's are known for their warrior culture, Sabine was more of a punk graffiti artist who had lessons to learn before accepting her heritage and her role in the conflicts to come. By the series' end, she proved to be a pivotal member of the Rebellion, and when she was last seen, she walked on to her next adventure side-by-side with Ahsoka.
That's right, the last time both characters were seen, they were on a mission together. Though their journey to find and save Ezra Bridger may or may not prove to be a plot point in itself for The Mandalorian, it only makes sense that the two characters would come as a paired set. If Ahsoka is confirmed for the series, then Sabine would only make more sense as she's the character with the Mandalorian heritage. What's more, she has an even deeper connection to The Mandalorian with the Darksaber.
With the famed black lightsaber appearing at the end of The Mandalorian in the hands of Moff Gideon, the series' first season left off with a clear and explicit callback to an object Sabine herself held onto for some time. Sabine even trained in using the blade with Jedi Kanan Jarrus and learning to wield it was a major symbolic step for her in accepting her identity as a Mandalorian. Indeed, the object itself has a deep history with the culture, and previously in The Clone Wars, it represented Darth Maul's dominion over the terrorist group Death Watch that sought to rule Mandalore.
Sabine may not have the same fan base or as storied a history as Ahsoka, but when you lay out all the facts on the table, it certainly seems as though she merits an appearance in The Mandalorian even more than the exiled Jedi. With Mando providing guardianship of The Child and Moff Gideon hot on his trail and thirsty for revenge there's no doubt that the bounty hunter could use all the help he could get.
Created by Jon Favreau, The Mandalorian stars Pedro Pascal, Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito and Emily Swallow. Season 1 is streaming now on Disney+. Season 2 is slated to arrive this October.