Two important characters in Ahsoka Season 2 will be recast by Disney and Lucasfilm for different reasons, but the rest of the show's cast will remain the same as it was for the first installment. Ahsoka is making its long-awaited return sometime in 2026, and many fans could not be more excited. Season 1 debuted nearly three years ago in August 2023, making the wait between Season 1 and Season 2 one of the longest waits Star Wars has ever had, and the outright longest wait between two seasons of a Disney+ show.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Disney and Lucasfilm only had to recast two characters for Ahsoka Season 2. One of those characters will likely be an integral part of the upcoming storyline, and how important the other will be remains to be seen.
Many fans are aware that Ray Stevenson tragically passed away in 2023. The veteran actor portrayed Baylan Skoll in Season 1 and received extremely high praise for his work and commitment to the role, and executives thought it would be best to move forward with the character by bringing a different actor in.
Game of Thrones star Rory McCann (who played The Hound in that series) was confirmed to take over for Stevenson, which seemed more than fitting considering McCann and Stevenson were close friends. A trailer has not been revealed yet, but fans have already received an official look at McCann's version of Baylan Skoll.
The other actor to be recast for Ahsoka Season 2 will be Claudia Black. Black brought the role of Nightsister Klothow to life in Season 1, and recently confirmed that she would not be returning for Season 2.
Specifically, Black revealed that Disney was not willing to pay her enough money to continue in the role. Filming for Season 2 moved from the United States to the United Kingdom, and Black stated that she would require more money to support her family as a single mother, especially since she would be spending so much time filming in another country. Black and Disney could not reach an agreement, so she decided to step away, which led to Disney recasting the role.
Notably, it was not confirmed if Disney and Lucasfilm would cast someone else as Nightsister Klothow for Season 2, or if they could cut the character from the story altogether. However, The Hollywood Reporter revealed that the role was recast when filming moved to the U.K., so fans will still be seeing the character in Season 2.
Aside from Stevenson and Black, all of the actors who were in Ahsoka Season 1 will remain the same. Fans will still see Rosario Dawson reprise her role as the former Jedi, Ahsoka Tano, alongside other actors like Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger), and Lars Mikkelsen (Grand Admiral Thrawn).
What Do the Ahsoka Season 2 Recasts Mean?
It may not seem like a big deal that Disney and Lucasfilm brought in new actors to fill the roles of Baylan Skoll and Nightsister Klothow for Ahsoka Season 2, but those actions indicate that both characters will be extremely important to the upcoming narrative.
For instance, it could have been easily explained that something happened to Baylan Skoll off-screen, as the last time he was seen in Season 1, he was venturing off alone to find some greater power, which the show teases were the Mortis Gods. Disney and Lucasfilm keeping Baylan as a character for Season 2 likely means that there were already major plans for Season 2's story to include him, and that writing his character out of the series would have resulted in Lucasfilm needing to make major changes to the rest of the script.
Baylan was an extremely important character in Season 1, so it wouldn't be a surprise if he remained a central character in Season 2.
Nightsister Klothow didn't have as major a role as Baylan Skoll did in Season 1, but she still played a big part in the overall narrative. Her involvement directly led to Thrawn escaping the Peridea galaxy, and the end of Season 1 set up that he would continue an alliance with the Nightsisters in an attempt to retake the galaxy from the New Republic and restore the Empire to its former glory.
Like Baylan, it is possible that Dave Filoni and the rest of the Ahsoka creative team needed Klothow to remain in Season 2 for story purposes, and that taking her out could have led to a lot of rewrites. If that is the case, that is most likely why they brought in another actor to fill the role.
