The first of the intimate panels held over the Invasion weekend came at midday. Diana Lee Inosanto and Nelson Lee kicked off an afternoon of Ahsoka interviews.
Let’s first touch on the ‘intimate panels.’ This phrase doesn’t quite do it justice. The talks were held in the main hall suite at the Hilton Hotel in Birmingham and there was no moderator. The stars were simply introduced and if you wanted to ask a question you simply got up, waited your turn and then headed for the mic. There is no way you’d get this level of intimacy at Celebration or even a bigger convention in London.
Let’s dive in and see what they said.
There were all the obvious questions of “What’s it like being in Star Wars?” or “Do you love being in Star Wars?” Both Inosanto and Lee came across as friendly, down-to-earth and humble when talking about their experiences.
Inosanto, who played Morgan Elsbeth in both The Mandalorian and Ahsoka, has a very famous Godfather. None other than Bruce Lee. Inosanto gave a detailed account of how it was difficult to find work in Hollywood when she started her career but found that paid jobs became available after she had done some stunt work on Moonlighting – the successful TV series starring Bruce Willis. She explained how doing by stunts she was able to learn the craft on the job, get paid and learn how production schedules work and all the rest of it. A titbit that excited the room was to learn that Inosanto was a stunt double for a certain vampire slayer in a series called Buffy. This level of intense knowledge of physical performance would account for Inosanto’s incredible fight work on the Star Wars shows.
We moved onto prior knowledge of Star Wars before joining the universe and what preparations the actors took for their roles. Nelson Lee, who plays Hamato Xiono in Ahsoka, discussed that he watched all of Rebels and Resistance in preparation for the role. It’s fascinating to the see the parallels coming in here with actors watching Star Wars animation to get ready for live-action. Hayden Christensen did the same when preparing for Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka. Diana Lee Inosanto gave an account that she was able to meet Thrawn creator himself, Timothy Zahn, at a comic-con before shooting began and she was able to hear first hand his thoughts on the character and how people around might act and feel.
Some fun questions came next and someone asked the actors who they would have loved to have portrayed in Star Wars outside of their respective roles. For Lee it was an easy answer of Han Solo or Luke Skywalker and for Inosanto it was either Leia or Jyn Erso.
I decided to get up and ask a question and posed one for the both of them. “What was the pinch-me-moment for both of you that made you realise you were in Star Wars and a part of something special?”
For Nelson Lee, he spoke about how it’s all very surreal getting the call to say you’ve got the job and feeling the excitement but he then said it finally felt real and like a kid again when it came to the costume fittings. Being surrounded by alien heads and creatures and then finally getting to try on your own costume really brought it home that this was happening. Diana Lee Inosanto gave an answer that surprised me. She said it was long past production. It was along after post-production. She said her moment came when she saw the episode air. The episode she’s referring too, of course, is the fifth episode of the second series of The Mandalorian – The Jedi. She explained how seeing it all come together and play out made her very emotional and made it all feel very special. Watching the episode was also the first time she had heard her character’s name. In the scripts that Inosanto got, she was only referred to as The Magistrate. It was in another scene where she first heard Ahsoka Tano use the name Morgan Elsbeth.
A little while later, Inosanto was asked what project she would love to be in. Her answer? “A Lego movie all to myself.” When fellow Fantha Paul Naylor asked the pair about becoming Star Wars merchandise, Inosanto once again revealed her love for the building brick by saying that her Lego figure was her favourite toy made of her out of the Black Series, Vintage Collection and Retro figures. Lee, meanwhile, is starting the campaign to get his figure made.
Towards the end of the hour came the biggest laugh. We were told ahead of time, for obvious reasons, that Lucasfilm had asked no questions about Ahsoka Season 2 or any upcoming projects. Fair enough. Someone in the crowd, however, hadn’t quite gotten the message.
“Diana,” they asked. “Even though your character is dead, are you going to be in the upcoming Mando film?”
Diana paused, only briefly, before saying – “Errmmm…it’s a trap!”
Brilliant. You couldn’t have written that come-back if you’d have tried.
Stay tuned for my coverage of the panels from Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Eman Esfandi.
- Hardcover Book
- Breznican, Anthony (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 480 Pages - 10/21/2025 (Publication Date) - Insight Editions (Publisher)
