Mena Massoud opens up about Ezra Bridger casting speculation

There’s already been a lot of speculation and fan-casting surrounding the upcoming Ahsoka Star Wars series. We know Rosario Dawson will reprise her role as the live-action Ahsoka, but there hasn’t been any hard confirmation on other cast members for the show.

Lars Mikkelsen has already been rumored to be cast as Grand Admiral Thrawn for the series, and fans have long speculated that Aladdin star Mena Massoud has been cast as Ezra Bridger.

On Thursday, Massoud finally discussed those rumors, as well as a cryptic social media post he made earlier this year that sparked a lot of those rumblings initially.

Back in March of this year, Massoud posted a shirtless picture to his Instagram account. That itself wasn’t the focus of Star Wars fans, though. His caption was what turned heads.

Massoud’s caption read, “Hey, just so you know, when I escape I won’t hurt any of you.” Many Star Wars Rebels fans quickly realized that caption was a direct quote from Ezra in season two of Rebels, and that ignited the rumor mill that Massoud would be Ezra in live-action.

Mena Massoud addresses Ezra Bridger rumors

In an interview with ScreenRant, Massoud opened up about that caption and admitted that it wasn’t a confirmation of his casting, nor was he trying to hint at anything; instead, he was merely trying to will the casting into happening.

“Yeah. Just manifesting, just manifesting, trying different things,” Massoud explained. “Yeah, there’s not much more I can say about that, but, you know, I had heard murmurings that this role was coming up and this is becoming a real thing. So I just kinda wanted to throw my name in the ring and — yeah, just part of manifesting what you want.”

Massoud’s explanation is still shrouded in some mystery and vague wording, which will do little to quell the fires of Star Wars fans.

The 30-year-old actor got his big break by playing the titular character of the Disney live-action version of Aladdin in 2019, so he’s no stranger to working with Disney or acting in a major motion picture. In that same ScreenRant interview, Massoud said being cast as Aladdin was one of his dreams come true, and he said joining the Star Wars universe would be the same thing.

“It would be a dream come true. Obviously, I’ve already had one of my dreams come true with Aladdin, but I also think I could just really do it justice,” Massoud said. “I’ve worked on that kind of big, massive set before on Aladdin. I think I have that under my belt now and thankfully the film did really well, so I think I’ve proven that I can be successful in that environment.

“I think it would just be a great opportunity to take everything that I learned on a set like Aladdin and implement it into the Star Wars or DC or Marvel universe.”

While it may not be officially confirmed, it at least looks like Mena Massoud is very willing to play Ezra in an upcoming live-action Star Wars series, and we know Star Wars fans have been clamoring for him to take on that role, too. And it would make sense for Ezra to appear in Ahsoka since we already have a live-action Ahsoka and Bo-Katan Kryze along with the rumored casting of a live-action Thrawn.

What do you think? Is Mena Massoud the perfect choice to play Ezra? Do you think he’s been cast and just can’t talk about it? Let us know!