Mary Elizabeth Winstead played a small yet memorable supporting role in Ahsoka as Hera Syndulla and is expected to reprise the role in several upcoming projects. Among them will be the show's recently announced second season.
That was made official at the same time as The Mandalorian & Grogu movie, and The Hollywood Reporter had the good fortune to catch up with Winstead shortly after the news broke.
'I know nothing, I say nothing,'" she initially responded. "They generally keep us pretty much in the dark, which is for the best, because I would never want to say more than what I am allowed to say. So I can say that I genuinely know very little, but that is a very exciting press release and I’m really happy to hear that it’s being talked about."
In the same interview, Winstead was asked if she turned to her husband Ewan McGregor for advice when the time came to head into a Galaxy Far, Far Away. "Definitely. We talked a lot about what the experience of being a part of that world is like. Of course, we had those conversations before that as well, but it became a different conversation once it became a reality that I might actually be stepping into it."
"And I also had a familiarity with the project from being around on the Obi-Wan set. I had a familiarity with some of the people involved, not in a super close sense, but in the way that someone might be a friend of a friend. So you’ve heard about them and you’ve heard how cool they are to work with."
"And just being on the Obi-Wan set and getting to see what a positive environment it was, there was something incredibly moving about that," the actress continued. "I got to see people working on Star Wars who were such big fans of Star Wars, and that’s something that you can’t really feel and know until you’re there and you feel that energy and what a special thing it is to be a part of."
Winstead confirmed she took a deep dive into Star Wars Rebels to prepare for her role as Hera and, having become a fan, said it was an exciting moment to share the screen with C-3PO.
"There were so many moments like that. It was very moving, and it took me by surprise how much it hit me in the moment of seeing him on set and in that costume and hearing his voice," she recalls. "There’s just something so ingrained in us when it comes to those original movies and how much we’ve all grown up on them. So it was almost an out-of-body experience to be there in person. It was a really rare, unique thing to experience."
Ahsoka season 2 doesn't have a confirmed premiere date but is officially in development. The series will be released before Dave Filoni's planned Star Wars movie and that likely puts it on course for a 2025/2026 release.