Natasha Liu Bordizzo on Sabine & Ezra, Rebels Callbacks, & Working With Dave Filoni | Spacecon 2025

Recorded live at SpaceCon San Antonio on October 25, 2025. Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren in Ahsoka) answers fan questions about landing the role, stepping into Star Wars, and what it means to carry a character fans already love. She tells the full casting story: sending in an anonymous audition tape while shooting Day Shift, not even being told it was Star Wars, reading Tom Cruise lines from Top Gun for “a confidential Lucasfilm project,” and then getting a call that she’d be co-leading a series with Rosario Dawson. After that came a meeting with Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau to confirm she was their Sabine. Topics covered in the panel: Preparing to play Sabine Wren She watched all of Star Wars Rebels after being cast and treated the animated series like a memory bank for Sabine — emotions, history, trust issues, loyalty, stubbornness. She talks about how important Sabine’s early training with Kanan is for understanding who Sabine is in Ahsoka: struggling with control, fighting past trauma, wanting to be more but not always believing she deserves it. She says Filoni’s approach is freeing: “You are this character now,” meaning she’s allowed to make choices in live action rather than just imitate animation. Armor, costuming, and the “oh wow” moment The first time she went to Manhattan Beach Studios for fittings, they put her in Mandalorian armor — even Bo-Katan’s plates — just to see how it sat on her frame. She’d just binge-watched everything Star Wars, so she was already on emotional overload. She talks about the practical sets on Ahsoka: working switches that light up, working droids, physical props instead of pretending in front of a blank wall. She calls it “Disneyland every day.”