Mary Elizabeth Winstead Is Joining Star Wars
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is making her way into the Star Wars universe. This is such a cool move and she's joining a major production
Disney has announced that Birds of Prey actor Mary Elizabeth Winstead will be joining the cast of the upcoming Ahsoka series. The new limited series will air on Disney +, and casting confirmations are beginning to pile up. The character Mary Elizabeth Winstead will play is still unknown, with Disney being typically secretive about the details. It is known that several other characters will be joining. Natasha Liu Bordizzo will appear on the show as fan favorite Sabine Wren. Even more excitingly, it has been widely reported that Hayden Christensen will appear in Ahsoka as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead will join the Ahsoka series that is technically a spinoff of the well-received The Mandalorian show. But the character Ahsoka has been an integral part of Star Wars lore for years. The character first appeared in the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars. She was then a central component on the subsequent animated show of the same name. In continuity, Ahsoka was initially the Padawan apprentice to Jedi Anakin Skywalker in the prequel era. She eventually broke with the Jedi Order, becoming something of a freelance Force user. She would appear as a Rebel Alliance agent and mentor to the character Ezra Bridger in Star Wars Rebel.
After a vocal cameo in 2019’s Rise of Skywalker film, the character was finally introduced to live action in The Mandalorian. She was played by Rosario Dawson, who will reprise the role for the upcoming show. And it will be interesting to see how Mary Elizabeth Winstead factors in here with a predominantly female leading cast.
Mary Elizabeth Winstead is no stranger to action roles. She portrayed the DC character Huntress aka Helena Bertinelli in the 2020 film Birds of Prey, a mob-hunting vigilante with a penchant for a crossbow. Prior to that, she starred in A Good Day to Die Hard, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter and the cult hit Scott Pilgrim vs. the World. Winstead was also widely praised for her role in the third season of the FX show Fargo, co-starring with Ewan McGregor, the once and future Obi-Wan Kenobi. The two have also been in a relationship since 2017 and have a son together. It is unknown whether the limited series Ahsoka will connect to the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but it would definitely be interesting to see the two together in the Star Wars universe.
There has not been a release date announced for Ahsoka. Reportedly, production will begin on the series in early 2022, with Mary Elizabeth Winstead added late. In the meantime, The Book of Boba Fett is acting as the live-action lynchpin series for Disney +. Recently, Boba Fett star Temeura Morrison joked that he would like to see the return of Ewoks to the Star Wars universe, but that may have just been an offhand remark and not an indication of the future direction of the franchise.
But nothing is out of bounds at the moment for Disney, given that they have brought back in a de-aged Luke Skywalker, a Baby Yoda and the erstwhile Ramona Flowers. Ahsoka is one of the most anticipated upcoming Star Wars productions, so we will have to wait in excitement for what that show brings.
