The creators of Ahsoka used a scene from Top Gun during auditions to discover who was best to play Sabine Wren. Ahsoka is an upcoming entry in the new universe of live-action Star Wars series streaming exclusively on Disney+ that began with The Mandalorian and continued on with The Book of Boba Fett, Obi-Wan Kenobi, and this September’s Andor. Ahsoka, which was developed by Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni, will be centered around Rosario Dawson’s live-action version of the iconic Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated character, who originally appeared in The Mandalorian season 2. The cast of the series will also include Ivanna Sakhno, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, and Hayden Christensen reprising the role of Darth Vader.
Another one of the main characters in the series will be Sabine Wren, played by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon: Sword of Destiny star Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Wren was originally introduced in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, voiced by The Good Place actress Tiya Sircar. The character is a young Mandalorian warrior and former bounty hunter who goes from being a rebellious graffiti artist to an explosives expert after dropping out of the Imperial Academy. The Ahsoka series will be the first time she has been portrayed in live-action, though she has appeared in other Star Wars properties like the animated web series Star Wars Forces of Destiny.
This week, THR sat down for an exclusive interview with Bordizzo about her role in the new Netflix vampire movie Day Shift. Naturally, the conversation shifted toward her upcoming role in Ahsoka and she revealed the surprising way she was cast. During the audition process, the people auditioning for Sabine didn’t know what character or show they were auditioning for, only that Favreau was working on it. One of the only things she was given was “a scene from Top Gun to audition with, and I played this male pilot.” Read her full quote below:
I remember it was a very, very coded thing that didn’t give you any information. I had a scene from Top Gun to audition with, and I played this male pilot. And then there was another scene. I can’t remember what it was from, but it obviously wasn’t a scene from the show.
So I just knew it was a very elusive Jon Favreau-related project, and at this point, like most actors, for my own mental health, I sent off the tape and didn’t think about it again. I’ve been through absolute circuses with casting where it’s like four callbacks, two director zooms and then it’s just complete silence. You never hear from anyone again. So I sent off the tape, didn’t hear anything for a few weeks and thought, “Yep, that’s another one.”
It’s not uncommon for the audition sides that actors receive to be from a completely different project, especially when the show is as shrouded in secrecy as a new Star Wars series. However, the choice of Top Gun for the audition scene reveals a lot about how the creators want to present the live-action version of the character. It seems that Sabine Wren will be the exact combination of intrepid, cocky, and charismatic that would be perfectly embodied by a character from the 1986 classic.
These auditions likely happened long before Top Gun: Maverick took off at the box office. This is most likely a good thing for Ahsoka, because if it earnestly comes by a Top Gun vibe, it may prove to be just as appealing as that legacy sequel. Sabine Wren’s live-action debut has already been hotly anticipated by Star Wars fans, but this revelation provides a brand-new reason to be excited by the prospect.
