Which animated Star Wars characters could be joining The Mandalorian season 2? We have some thoughts.
The greatest shared story universe is about to get even better.
The first season of The Mandalorian — the first live-action show in the history of Star Wars — was a resounding success.
Although the story was forced to bounce around for eight episodes to establish its base, everything about the show was so well done and the essence of Star Wars was captured despite the fact that it had a very different feel overall.
Considering the great minds in charge of The Mandalorian, it will be no surprise to see twists nobody is expecting, details that will evade even the most avid Star Wars fans on first watch, and tremendous Easter eggs throughout.
But what should fans expect to see in terms of the shared story universe?
If you are a fan of The Clone Wars and Rebels animated series, season two of The Mandalorian could end up being one episode after another of jaw-dropping reveals with new characters crossing over from the animated world to the live-action world.
Some of these names are already confirmed or anticipated, while others are still very much up in the air. Here are 10 animated characters you might see cross over from animation to live-action for the first time in season two of The Mandalorian.
There may be some spoilers ahead, so if you want to be completely surprised, come back and check the accuracy of these predictions at a later time.
1. Ahsoka Tano
Let’s start with a soft-toss.
Ahsoka Tano is one of the obvious characters likely to come from the animated Star Wars world to the live-action world, though technically her voice is already heard in The Rise of Skywalker.
This will likely be the first time we see Ahsoka in live-action, and while nothing has been directly confirmed by Star Wars or Lucasfilm (not in the US, at least), the leaks are too difficult to ignore at this point.
It would not be surprising to see Ahsoka in some of the next promotional material for season two.
It appears as though actress Rosario Dawson — the one who would presumably play Ahsoka Tano — has been confirmed by a Disney+ Instagram story out of Denmark.
Take it for what you will, but it does appear pretty obvious that Ahsoka will have a role in season two of The Mandalorian, and it has always made sense.
Ahsoka is one of the only “Jedi” remaining in the galaxy at this point in the story, along with obviously Luke Skywalker and another character we will talk about in a little bit.
Ahsoka would have unique knowledge about The Child’s species since she obviously spent the majority of her childhood around Yoda himself. She is also uniquely qualified to explain The Child’s unique force sensitivity to those who clearly don’t understand it.
Ahsoka also has a very long history with Mandalorians dating back to the Clone Wars, but certainly not limited to that.
Ahsoka’s inclusion in season two is a foregone conclusion at this point. It wouldn’t be surprising for her to either become an integral part of the story or get her own show as a result of this, either.
For what it’s worth, Rosario Dawson is already credited for the Ahsoka Role on IMDb…
2. Bo-Katan Kryze
At the end of the first season of The Mandalorian, Moff Gideon bursts through his tie fighter with the Darksaber.
If you are not familiar with the animated series, you might have simply thought that this guy just had a really cool black lightsaber.
That weapon is significant to the history of the Mandalorians. It was created by Tarre Vizsla, the first Mandalorian to get into the Jedi Order. The Darksaber was passed down to Pre Vizsla (a Clone Wars character voiced by Executive Producer Jon Favreau) who had it taken from him during the Clone Wars by Darth Maul.
The Darksaber was later taken from Maul by Sabine Wren (Rebels) who became the rightful owner of it after a duel with Gar Saxon.
As a symbol of leadership of the Mandalorian people, Sabine passed the Darksaber to Bo-Katan Kryze, who has made appearances in both The Clone Wars and Rebels.
Bo-Katan is the last known character in Star Wars to have the Darksaber, and in fact, actress Katee Sackhoff is confirmed to be playing the live-action role of Bo-Katan, apparently in episode one of the second season of The Mandalorian.
3. Sabine Wren
There was a time when I thought that Sabine Wren could actually be the Mandalorian the show was actually about. The timeline fit, and Sabine’s story arc as part of Clan Wren and House Vizsla in the Mandalorian history seemed to be something worth diving into.
Although she isn’t the Mandalorian, Sabine is someone who can play a major role in Mando’s story.
Not only can Sabine likely provide insight into how Moff Gideon ended up with the Darksaber, but she is also directly tied to Ahsoka Tano.
At the end of Rebels, she and Ahsoka are venturing off together to go search for Ezra Bridger.
Sabine’s crucial piece in Mandalorian history makes her a natural fit for season two, and if she’s tagging along with Ahsoka Tano, well…you put the pieces together.
Sasha Banks is playing an unidentified role in season two of The Mandalorian, and many have already theorized that she could be playing the role of Sabine.
She’s definitely got plenty of experience with multi-colored hair already.
4. Ezra Bridger
Live-action Ezra Bridger has been teased, which is absolutely glorious if at all true. (And we already have a thought about who could play him.)
While I think there’s a chance we could see Ezra Bridger in season two of The Mandalorian, I think it’s more likely that Ezra appears in a different live-action series or spinoff series.
With that said, the timeline here is such that it would make sense for Ezra to re-appear in the Star Wars universe.
The last time we all saw Ezra, he was sacrificing his life to save his friends and many others from the clutches of the Empire and, specifically, Grand Admiral Thrawn.
Ezra disappeared into the abyss, and one of the final scenes of Rebels is Ahsoka and Sabine Wren coming together to go and search for him.
No one knows if Ezra was ever found, but he’s one of the best Jedi ever (in my opinion) and played such a crucial role in the story on a variety of levels.
It’s hard to tell exactly what his tie-in to The Mandalorian could be, though if Ahsoka and Sabine found him, Ezra could potentially help offer some additional insight into The Child.
Because of how major of a character Ezra is, I don’t think his presence in season two is as likely as others, but you never know.
5. Captain Rex
Captain Rex has been all over the Star Wars saga.
Technically, Rex has already been part of live-action, but no one knew him as anyone but the white-bearded man at the end of Return of the Jedi.
Because Star Wars sort of bent that one into place, I think this will be the first time we actually see Captain Rex in live-action, with the role possibly being played by Temuera Morrison, who played Jango Fett on Attack of the Clones.
Rex has sort of been “ride or die” with Ahsoka since the very beginning, and his inclusion in all of this would be really cool because he’s one of the original clone troopers and someone who could come face-to-face with Boba Fett, technically one of his ‘brothers’.
Rex would be quite old at this point in time, but he could still serve a role and it would be awesome to see him fighting alongside Ahsoka in live-action.
6. Cad Bane
Alright, you’re going to have to stick with me for a moment on this one.
Cad Bane is one of the greatest bounty hunters in Star Wars history.
He was an integral piece of The Clone Wars series and there were apparently plans for a Cad Bane vs. Boba Fett duel, according to Dave Filoni.
Both Bane and Fett are two of the most notorious bounty hunters in Star Wars lore, and since Boba Fett is making an appearance in season two, might Cad Bane also?
An action figure description of Cad Bane revealed that he survived the Clone Wars and wound up working for the Empire.
In combination with that thought, his obvious affiliation with the bounty hunter’s guild (at least in the past), and his affiliation with Jango and Boba Fett, wouldn’t it make sense for Cad Bane to make a live-action appearance?
7. Thrawn
Selfishly, I hope we get the opportunity to see Thrawn in live-action sooner rather than later.
Thrawn was Grand Admiral in the Empire during the reign of Emperor Palpatine, and he had successfully identified the Rebels’ plans to destroy the Death Star before Ezra Bridger’s heroic act to remove Thrawn from the picture entirely.
Thrawn was always 10 steps ahead of everyone, unable to be out-smarted until Ezra pulled off what he did. Neither Ezra nor Thrawn was killed in that final episode of Rebels, leaving the door wide open for a character like this to make an appearance in live-action.
Initially, Thrawn’s inclusion in The Mandalorian didn’t make a lot of sense, but thinking about it more, could it be obvious?
Who is Moff Gideon working for?
At the time of this story, the Empire has been dismantled. Palpatine is dead and Vader is dead, so there would be no more perfect time for Thrawn to come back into the mix.
Considering all he knew behind the scenes while working his way up the ranks in the Empire, it wouldn’t be shocking if Thrawn was the one behind the scenes pulling all of the strings and calling all of the shots for some kind of “new” Empire.
8. Hondo Ohnaka
Although he hasn’t been flying an X-Wing, by any means, Hondo Ohnaka has been a valuable ally to the Rebellion in taking down the Empire throughout the Star Wars story.
The smuggler now has a prominent role at the Disney Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge theme park on the Smuggler’s Run ride, so we have also technically seen him in live-action already in that respect.
But an on-screen role in live-action has never been done before for Hondo, whose inclusion in The Mandalorian has always made a lot of sense.
This is precisely the kind of story Hondo would be part of with all of the bounty hunters, smuggling, and activity going on under the table, it would almost be surprising if Hondo didn’t have some kind of role throughout The Mandalorian, especially since we know and it has been confirmed that he’s alive and well at this point in the timeline.
Maybe Hondo and Mando already have some kind of history together we don’t yet know about.
9. The Bad Batch
This might be a bit of a stretch because The Bad Batch is getting its own show spinoff at some point, but what happened to these guys after the Clone Wars?
Did they have the same chips in their brains as all of their brothers? Did they wind up working for the Empire?
It would be fascinating to see the Bad Batch regardless if they ended up working with the Empire or not. These guys were way too good of soldiers and specialists to just be killed off at some point, so could they be the next ones tasked with pursuing the Child?
The Bad Batch were a defective group of Clone Troopers whose defects were of the positive variety. One has super-human strength, another has superior intelligence, another has outstanding combat skills, and another has sharp-shooting abilities.
Although they were a huge part of the initial plot in the final season of The Clone Wars, we never saw what their ultimate fate was after Order 66.
We will undoubtedly see these guys again, but without more backstory, it might be surprising to see them pop up in The Mandalorian.
10. Hera, Zeb, and Chopper
If characters like Ahsoka and Sabine are going to be included in the second season of The Mandalorian, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that they would be joined by their old pals Hera, Zeb, and Chopper from the Ghost crew in Rebels.
These three characters fought for the Rebellion in the years leading up to the events that took place in A New Hope, and likely throughout that time as well.
What happened to them during that time?
What’s going on with Hera and Jedi Kanan Jarrus’ young child that was revealed at the end of Rebels?
Every great Star Wars series or film needs a great droid, and Chopper is one of the more beloved ones to be certain.
Zeb would be a really interesting character to see in live-action because his species, Lasat, has never been seen in live-action before.
In fact, the Lasat species was based on early concept art for what Wookiees could end up being, but they obviously chose a different direction.
It would be a lot of fun to see the Ghost crew, if only briefly, at some point in season two of The Mandalorian.
Who would you like to see appear in The Mandalorian? Let us know in the comments.