Casting for a live-action Ezra Bridger from Star Wars Rebels' has reportedly begun. Over the last several weeks, Star Wars appears to be transitioning some of its animated characters to live-action given reports of Rosario Dawson being cast as a live-action Ahsoka Tano and Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze. Both characters are expected to appear in The Mandalorian season 2, set to debut this October on Disney+. If this new information comes to fruition, Ezra will eventually join them on the streaming service, albeit potentially in a different series.
Debuting in 2014 on Disney XD, Rebels, created by Dave Filoni featured an all-new cast of characters, focusing primarily on a small band of freedom fighters known as the Ghost Crew who operate in and around Lothal. The team includes Hera, Kanan, Sabine, Zeb, Chopper, and Ezra, and they fought the Galactic Empire in their own small way, ultimately helping with the Rebellion's birth. The show ended after four seasons and with some lingering questions regarding the final fate of Ezra, who stayed with Grand Admiral Thrawn as the Purrgil jumped to hyperspace with the villain's ship. Since then, there's no clue as to what happened to the young Jedi, although Filoni has since confirmed that both Ezra and Thrawn survived.
Now, fans may finally learn what happened to Ezra after his disappearance at the end of Rebels as a new report from The Illuminerdi claims Lucasfilm is looking to cast a live-action version of the character. According to their report, this will be for an upcoming Disney+ show and not The Mandalorian. Based on the casting description, the studio is looking for a male actor between ages 30 and 40. Lucasfilm is also specifically looking for actors of Asian descent but is open to seeing auditions from Indian, Latino, or Middle Eastern performers.
It's worth noting that since this isn't official news from Lucasfilm, it's best to treat it with a healthy dose of salt. That said, it's still fun to speculate what this rumored casting call could mean for the future of the character. Given the age-range provided for the interested actors, the unknown project in which a live-action Ezra could appear would be set after the events of Return of the Jedi. For context, The Mandalorian takes place five years following the fall of the Empire. While the character may not pop up in the Jon Favreau-created show, this new information might be an indication that Star Wars is keen to keep exploring this specific time period. Rumor has it that an Ahsoka series is also coming to Disney+, which could very well be the show to debut a live-action Ezra. Otherwise, the casting might be for something entirely unknown at this point.
While Filoni recently confirmed that there won't be a Star Wars Rebels season 5, he did say that the stories of the remaining Ghost Crew can continue via other venues. This rumored Ezra live-action casting might be for his spin-off tackling the life he lives following his sacrifice at the end of Star Wars Rebels. Since he didn't factor in any of the Star Wars sequel trilogy movies, fans are more curious about what happened to him. Assuming that this news turns out to be true, it'll be interesting to see if Filoni will also transition other characters such as Hera and Sabine into future live-action Star Wars projects.
Source: The Illuminerdi