Ahsoka Season 2 will have one major difference from the debut season, as the sophomore run sets out to resolve some unresolved threads that were left unexplained. Of them, none felt heavier than the fate of Baylan Skoll, the jedi standing on the ruins of a massive stone monument, staring into the unknown.
Ray Stevenson, who played Baylan, had died in May 2023, a full three months before the series even premiered. What came next would take nearly two years to resolve. At Star Wars Celebration in Japan in April 2025, Dave Filoni finally answered the question everyone had been sitting with: Baylan Skoll lives on, and Scottish actor Rory McCann, best known for Game of Thrones and Gladiator II, would be stepping into the role.
At the Celebration panel for the show, Dave Filoni talked about Stevenson’s passing and the impact it had on the show as he stated,
“It was a particularly big challenge because of losing Ray, who was just the greatest person and such a great spirit on the show…. Ray was the most beautiful person on screen and off. He was wonderful to all of us. However big of a loss you think it is, it’s bigger. And it was a challenge for me to even consider continuing for a while. But I have a great support group with Jon and Rosario and I found a way. And I had Ray in my head. I was grateful for all the conversations with him about Baylan. So I understood what to do, it just took a while to get there.”
Filoni’s decision to move forward with Baylan’s story says a lot about how central he is to the show, and to Filoni’s bigger vision for Ahsoka.
More details about Ahsoka Season 2 and Stevenson’s replacement
Filoni has already confirmed that Ahsoka Season 2 will have eight episodes, although a release date is not yet known. Stepping into Stevenson’s shoes is Rory McCann. Last year, Filoni addressed the change in cast as he stated,
“I’m very confident now that Ray would be happy with the direction we’ve chosen. The character was meant to be important. He’s meant to be the parallel to Ahsoka in every way. His whole focus is not letting Ray down and not letting you guys dow. The Force is with him.”
The story of Baylan Skoll was always going to be a story about a man searching for something beyond the binary of the Force. Rory McCann inherits a character with enormous weight and enormous potential and the recast is not a reset but a continuation, and if the care surrounding the decision is any indication of what Ahsoka Season 2 will actually deliver, there is genuine reason to be excited about what comes next.
More details about Ahsoka Season 2 are awaited for now.
Edited by Nibir Konwar