Who Plays Young Ahsoka? Casting Revealed as ‘Star Wars’ Goes All-in on Live-Action ‘Clone Wars'

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Ahsoka “Part Five: Shadow Warrior.”

After you’ve checked in on your Star Wars friends following the premiere of Ahsoka “Part Five: Shadow Warrior,” you might be wondering: who plays Padawan Ahsoka Tano in the World Between Worlds flashback sequences? Odds are, if you’re a Marvel fan—or just a fan of movies in general—you’ve seen her in these billion-dollar blockbusters.

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Earlier this week, rumors of who would be playing a teenage version of the titular hero in Dave Filoni’s Disney+ Ahsoka series made their rounds across the internet, with fans believing that the World Between Worlds would feature a flashback sequence to Star Wars: The Clone Wars after Anakin Skywalker’s (Hayden Christensen) made his long-awaited return in “Part Four: Fallen Jedi.”

To no one’s surprise, this speculation turned out to be true, and the fifth episode of Ahsoka treated fans to not one but two action-packed flashback sequences to the Clone Wars. With it, the show introduced Rosario Dawson’s temporary “replacement,” given that Ahsoka was roughly 14 years old when she first became a Padawan learner.

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Star Wars hasn’t shied away from using CGI and digital de-aging technology in previous projects like The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Still, it’s safe to say that Lucasfilm probably made the right move by casting a younger actress in the role for the most recent episode.

After last week’s World Between Worlds reveal, “Part Five: Shadow Warrior” picks up immediately after Anakin and Ahsoka’s reunion. Ahsoka has essentially hit rock bottom, defeated by Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and seemingly abandoned by her Padawan, Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). But thanks to her old master, she gets a quick refresher course on what it means to be a Jedi.

Ahsoka and Anakin are transported back in time to an early campaign towards the start of the Clone Wars, where they’re seen fighting alongside the 501st Legion. Here, we get our first look at young Ahsoka in live-action, played by Marvel and Barbie (2023) star Ariana Greenblatt.

At first glance, it may be difficult to recognize Greenblatt underneath that heavy orange face paint. But she’s also donned a very different alien persona for Avengers: Infinity War (2017), where she played a young version of Thanos’ (Josh Brolin) green-skinned daughter, Gamora (Zoe Saldana). It’s safe to assume that Greenlatt is no stranger to spending hours in the makeup chair at this point.

It’s also a remarkable feat that despite being so young, Greenblatt already has two billion-dollar movies under her belt, including Infinity War and Barbie. Adding Star Wars to her portfolio is seriously impressive, begging the question of when she’ll sign onto an Avatar or Star Trek project to check the other remaining franchises off her list.

Considering Greenblatt is 16 years old, she’s certainly the correct age to play a Clone Wars-era Ahsoka and appears again in a second flashback sequence to the Seige of Mandalore arc, now 17. Her costumes and weapons accurately represent her evolution throughout all seven seasons of the animated show, with Ahsoka initially wielding her green lightsaber before swapping it out for the white blades she uses in present time.

This casting news shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise to those engaging in online Ahsoka discourse. Reports of Greenblatt’s involvement in the show went viral earlier this week before Lucasfilm could confirm anything, after many had initially suspected that House of the Dragon alum Savannah Steyn would be portraying Ahsoka during these flashback sequences.

While Greenblatt’s appearance in the Star Wars spinoff is more than likely a one-off cameo, there’s a chance we’ll see more flashbacks to Ahsoka’s training under Anakin Skywalker in future episodes, especially as the search for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) continues into the mysterious Unknown Regions.

It’s heartwarming to see this full-circle moment in Ahsoka, with longtime fans of The Clone Wars finally getting a glimpse at what some of their favorite scenes look like in live-action. Now that she’s learned some new tips and tricks from her former master and gotten full closure with this dark chapter in her story, it’ll be interesting to see if Ahsoka can save her own apprentice from certain doom as the re-emergence of Thrawn and his Imperial Remnant threatens to plunge the galaxy into chaos.

The next episode of Ahsoka arrives on Disney+ next Tuesday, September 19.

What did you think of the latest Ahsoka episode? Was Ariana GreenBlatt a good fit for a young Ahsoka Tano? Let us know in the comments below.