Ray Stevenson reportedly joins the cast of Ahsoka as a villain

The Hollywood Reporter recently reported that Ray Stevenson has joined the cast of Ahsoka!

Though there’s not any firm details about who he will play, there is an important bit of information included in the report: “It is unclear who Stevenson will play, but sources say he is a villain in the series and will play an admiral … although, not Thrawn.” Based on that, as well as the description of the series in the article (it says it will be about Ahsoka’s search for Grand Admiral Thrawn), it certainly sounds like this could be the avenue through which we finally meet the big villain behind this whole era of storytelling. Stevenson isn’t playing Thrawn – and that’s a relief, as it better be Lars Mikkelsen – but he will be an admiral. And presumably that means an Imperial admiral, since it’s specified as not being Thrawn.

So who might Stevenson be playing? There’s no way to know, but I’ll just say this: if he’s playing a non-Thrawn Imperial admiral, why not Pellaeon? He was Thrawn’s right-hand man in the Legends stories, and he’s made a couple of appearances in new Star Wars canon (but never actually seen on-screen). He was name-dropped in Rebels as Thrawn spoke briefly with him, but we don’t know what happened to him after the Purrgil attack. I’d love to see him show up in these stories alongside Thrawn, but we’ll have to wait and see.

Anyway, Stevenson is no stranger to the Star Wars universe, as he voiced Gar Saxon in Rebels and The Clone Wars. But this will be his first appearance in a live-action Star Wars project, which is becoming a theme for this series (especially if Thrawn appears too).

Ahsoka will star Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano, reprising her role from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett after bringing the fan-favorite character into live-action for the first time. Natasha Liu Bordizzo is reportedly starring alongside her as Sabine Wren, another fan-favorite making the jump into live-action for the first time ever. Hayden Christensen will reportedly reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker, while Mary Elizabeth Winstead and Ray Stevenson are reportedly part of the cast as well in undisclosed roles. The series is being written and directed by Dave Filoni, and according to the THR report, will begin shooting at the end of April.