Hera Is Finally “Part Of The Action” In Ahsoka Season 2, Mary Elizabeth Winstead Teases
“It takes it to a whole other level.”
After two years, the second season of Ahsoka is finally on the way — but creator Dave Filoni has wisely been using that time to make the series stronger than ever. Ahsoka Season 1 was hindered by flaws that seemed preventable: not only was its story slow and uneventful, but it struggled to give its ensemble cast — most of them fan favorites from the animated Rebels — equal time in the spotlight. The series was mostly focused on the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), who’d been banished to a neighboring universe in the final season of Rebels. But the effort of bringing this villain from the animated corner of Star Wars and into live-action left a handful of other characters, like Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Hera Syndulla, on the sidelines.
Like Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Hera was a fan favorite in Rebels. An accomplished pilot and the leader of her own sect of the Rebel Alliance, the character was often at the center of the action. Ahsoka, meanwhile, takes place long after the Rebels have defeated the Empire, leaving Hera struggling to find her place in the new regime. Fortunately, that’s all set to change in Season 2. With Ahsoka and Sabine stranded in that far-off universe, and Thrawn poised to restart the battle between the Empire and the New Republic, Hera might just be the one stepping up to lead Republic forces.
According to Winstead herself, Hera will play a larger role in Ahsoka’s “epic” new season. The actress can’t reveal much about the show and its new direction, but in a recent interview with Inverse, she teased a promising departure from the stop-and-start action of Season 1.
Hera Syndulla will finally step out of Ahsoka’s shadow.
“I think I can say that I get to be a little more part of the action this season, which is really, really fun,” Winstead tells Inverse. “Other than that, it’s very epic ... I mean, it takes it to a whole other level, so I’m excited, too, for everybody to see it.”
By all accounts, Ahsoka Season 2 is shaping up to be a marked improvement on Season 1. The latter caught plenty of flack for its look and feel, with critics noting an overreliance on visual effects like the Volume. The 360-degree LED screen has been replacing backgrounds on Star Wars projects since The Mandalorian in 2019, but it’s also become a crutch, flattening scenes and storylines that would otherwise depict dynamic new worlds. Ahsoka Season 2 will reportedly rely less on the Volume and more on traditional cinematography, though its budget will also be a bit more modest than Season 1. The new season seems to be prioritizing its characters over spectacle, and that’s great for fans of the relationships in Rebels.
Winstead will dig into another meaty role before Ahsoka in The Hand That Rocks the Cradle.
Little by little, Ahsoka is gearing up for a promising comeback — but it may be a while before we see Winstead back in Hera’s trademark flight suit. Ahsoka doesn’t have a release date just yet, but in the meantime, Winstead stars in a reimagining of horror film The Hand That Rocks the Cradle. She plays Caitlin, an affluent (yet overwhelmed) housewife who gets more than she bargained for with her new live-in nanny, played by resident scream queen Maika Monroe. Winstead’s role in the upcoming film is somewhat removed from her staunchly heroic role in the Star Wars galaxy, which was a huge draw to taking on the project.
“Anytime, as an actor, you read a script where the character is a bit ambiguous, it’s just so exciting because it just feels more truthful in a way,” Winstead says. “For my character, she’s not able to really be her authentic self because she’s really kind of pushing down so much past trauma and the things that she’s trying to cover up, and she’s sort of created this facade around it.”
Cradle sounds a bit like a return to form for Winstead, who’s perhaps best known for ambiguous characters like Ramona Flowers in Scott Pilgrim vs the World. Ideally, she’ll have the chance to bring that same depth to Hera in Ahsoka Season 2, but Star Wars fans will have to wait to find out.
