The Star Wars universe is facing another shake-up as an actress has stepped away from Ahsoka after a pay dispute with The Walt Disney Company.
Ahsoka debuted on Disney+ in August 2023, merging threads from across the franchise into a single narrative line. Dave Filoni’s series continued the stories first launched in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, while aligning itself with The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and the upcoming Skeleton Crew.
Rosario Dawson fronts the series as Ahsoka Tano, joined by Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn, and the late Ray Stevenson. Diana Lee Inosanto also appears as Morgan Elsbeth.
Ahsoka and Sabine were last seen stuck on Peridea while Ezra found his way back home. With Season 2 officially confirmed and development underway alongside the Mandalorian and Grogu movie set for May 2026, Filoni is reportedly assembling the season to stand on its own. Industry chatter hints at a plan to avoid leaving the story unfinished should the series end unexpectedly. “According to Daniel Richtman, the plan now is to make sure the series has a satisfying ending in case it's canceled and doesn't return for a third season.”
The production has already endured major losses. Following Ray Stevenson’s passing at 58, THR announced, “Scottish actor Rory McCann, best known for playing the burly brute The Hound on HBO's Game of Thrones, will replace late actor Ray Stevenson for a second season of Star Wars show Ahsoka, The Hollywood Reporter has confirmed.” McCann appeared on stage at Star Wars Celebration in Tokyo to confirm his involvement.
Now, another performer has exited the project.
Ahsoka Actress Leaves Franchise Over Dispute
Claudia Black—who played Nightsister Grandmother Klothow—revealed she will not return for Season 2. Her exit marks another casting hurdle for the expanding Mando-Verse.
Black explained that although she was picked up for the next season, the move to London-based production made it financially unworkable. As a single mother living in Los Angeles, the offered pay could not offset her responsibilities.
“They picked up season two,” Black told Bleeding Cool, “picked me up with it, and then Disney, which is structuring things differently these days, could not pay me what I needed to be paid as a single mother to keep all my responsibilities going at home in Los Angeles, because they were filming in London.”
As part of the Nightsisters’ ruling council on Peridea, Klothow worked with Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). Black spoke positively of the on-set experience and noted that her son—a lifelong Clone Wars fan—managed to guess her role despite nondisclosure agreements.
“He was like, ‘Are you talking about the Nightsisters? What's the show?' He heard one little thing, and he was like, ‘I know exactly who she's talking about,' so it was fun to go into and do something relatable with him. But, very sad to not be able to continue that at the end of the day.”
Black later revealed more to The Hollywood Reporter, opening up about industry-wide pay concerns.
“When I did the first season, people assumed that I’m making hundreds of thousands of dollars. It could not be further from the truth on a role like this,” Black told the outlet. “[My pay was] closer to what I was earning when I was 19 or in my early 20s.”
“I have heard people who work in corporations, not necessarily Disney, but all these bigger corporations, they have spoken in rooms about how lucky the actors should be to be part of a successful franchise, and that they will take it for the screen credit and they will take it for a bit of money, and then hopefully that will bring them further work, but that they should be lucky,” she said. “The issue I have is when that comes to women, other people who were able to say yes to this job didn’t have the same responsibilities, and that thinking is not designed around how much invisible work women do in a household.”
Black said that conversations about these issues matter.
“I have a great community, I have an amazing life,” Black explained. “It’s just something needs to change and this needs to be discussed, and I knew the risks and I think there's more power in me stepping back, because I'm not desperate and there's more power in me talking about it even though there's so little job security and there's so little psychological safety in these spaces when women do speak up.”
She stressed that she does not view Disney’s decision as targeted: “It's a difficult situation, and the industry is fragile because if you push too hard, nothing gets made,” while acknowledging “the decision that Disney made” was “absolutely not personal” since negotiators “might not even know my screen credits, might not even know who I am.”
Black expressed gratitude for the support she received, while emphasizing the need for conversations about “disparity and the way things are run, and the way women are treated.” She explained that this wasn’t about being “treated poorly in this instance with Ahsoka,” but about how “we're not thought about, we're not factored in” when it comes to “invisible work that women do in a household.”
Black also emailed Dave Filoni to clarify her decision, writing that “if I could have, I would have, and that I did season one on a massive pay cut, precisely because many people want to be part of the Star Wars universe,” but “it took me to burnout, and it actually did really cost me.” She described her comments as part of raising “awareness to grow around the diversity of people in this business,” adding, “If they want to have the aura of an older woman who has all this lived experience, but they don't wanna help actually support her, then there's a problem.”
Klothow is expected to remain part of the storyline, meaning a recast is likely. No announcement has been made. Season 2 arrives in 2026 on Disney+.
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