Aladdin Actor Reacts To Star Wars’ Ezra Bridger Casting After Rumored Role

On the heels of Eman Esfandi landing the part, Aladdin star Mena Massoud reacts to the casting of Star Wars‘ Ezra Bridger for the upcoming show Ahsoka after he was rumored for the role for years. In 2020, Lucasfilm announced a spinoff series of The Mandalorian led by Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, who made her live-action debut in The Mandalorian season 2. Ahsoka will follow the former Jedi Padawan as she hunts down Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was last seen in the finale of Star Wars Rebels floating away with Ezra. Connecting to Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian, Ahsoka will feature the return of several Star Wars characters, including Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen).

Naturally, one of the characters that Star Wars Rebels fans were most anticipating seeing again in Ahsoka was Ezra Bridger. The former street urchin turned rebel hero’s loss in the prior animated show was truly heartbreaking for fans, so speculation on the character’s live-action casting spread online. One of the apparent frontrunners for the role was Massoud, who earned acclaim for his performance in Disney’s 2019 live-action Aladdin. The actor fueled these rumors when Massoud shared fan art depicting him as Ezra. However, despite these rumors, Ahsoka hascast Eman Esfandi as Ezra instead.

Now, Mena Massoud has taken to Twitter to react to the Star Wars Ezra Bridger casting announcement for Ahsoka. In the tweet, the Aladdin actor shared his relief that the rumors would now stop and his hope that Esfandi would do the character justice. However, Massoud also seemed to admit to some disappointment about not landing the role, saying he “Never really had a fair shot at it“. Check out Massoud’s full tweet below:

Massoud’s reaction again shows the actor’s genuine interest in portraying Ezra in Ahsoka. Massoud had somewhat been campaigning for the role himself by sharing fan art and quotes from Star Wars Rebels online, and his disappointment in losing the role bleeds through in this latest post. Still, however he may feel, Massoud also seems to be invested in Ahsoka doing Ezra’s character justice, and his response to Esfandi’s casting is positive. The comments under Massoud’s post also seem mostly to share support for both actors, despite the unsuccessful online campaign.

Now that Massoud’s involvement with Ahsoka seems to be definitely refuted now, Star Wars fans will have to turn their attention to Esfandi and the rest of thecast. Without more plot details, Esfandi’s role as Ezra is still unclear, though with Dawson’s Ahsoka hunting down Grand Admiral Thrawn, it will be interesting to see how he survived. For now, Star Wars Rebels fans can only join Massoud in hoping that Ahsokasucceeds in bringing Ezra Bridger and his friends to life.

Source: Mena Massoud/Twitter