Rahul Kohli Is NOT Playing Ezra Bridger In 'The Mandalorian'

Arguably, the best thing about Star Wars is the fans. There are long term fans and new generation fans. People grew up with Star Wars and became obsessed or actually fulfilled their dreams by working on one of the Star Wars projects. Besides that, Star Wars has also had a huge influence on many things. For example, early on, it influenced Fox to make 1979’s Alien. Ridley Scott actually approached Fox before the original Star Wars came out, but the idea was shot dow at down at the time. It was not until the success of Star Wars in 1977 that they felt more open to doing a space movie like Alien.

The space fantasy franchise is also inspiring many actors as well, such as Rahul Kohli, who has a new hit TV series called The Haunting of Bly Manor, which is playing on Netflix. Kohli has been rumored to play Ezra Bridger. After the rumor of actress Rosario Dawson playing Ahsoka Tano in an episode of The Mandalorian season 2 made the rounds, lots of people wondered what other cameos might be possible. Ezra Bridger was introduced in the hit animated TV series Star Wars Rebels. While the rumor of Rosario Dawson playing Ahsoka Tano has seemed like more of a certainty in recent weeks, the Ezra Bridger rumor is a different story.

Rahul Kohli has been a huge Star Wars fan. He has told Inverse, “I’ve spent more hours lightsaber dueling in my garden than I have acting. I became an actor because of Star Wars.” Kohli made a tweet showing off his The Haunting of Bly Manor chair back with a Lego Millennium Falcon and some random shots of him celebrating the release of his new hit The Haunting of Bly Manor TV series, while wearing his Lucasfilm t-shirt and watching the animated Star Wars series Rebels in the background. So it only made sense for someone like him to play Ezra Bridger, especially while showing himself to be in shape while heavily alluding to Ezra Bridger. Star Wars fans all around the world became excited, although Rahul Kohli dispelled the rumors later in the interview for his new hit TV series The Haunting of Bly Manor, “You aren’t going to ask about Ezra Bridger, are you?” he was asked.

Instead, Rahul Kohli was asked if he could play a totally original character, what would they be like, a generic question for any Star Wars fan.

“I would be in the background of the cantina if that’s what it took. But if I had a preference, I used to love Kyle Katarn from the Jedi Knights series."

In the Expanded Universe, Kyle Katarn was a member of the Galactic Empire before becoming a mercenary for hire and worked for the Rebel Alliance. He later became a member of the New Republic, having appeared in five Star Wars video games. He debuted in Star Wars: Dark Forces and then appeared in Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II, Star Wars Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith, Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast, and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy. He has also appeared in several books, including Troy Denning’s The Dark Nest Trilogy (The Joiner King, The Unseen Queen, and The Swarm War), most of the Legacy of the Force novels, and most of the Fate of the Jedi novels. However, when Disney acquired Lucasfilm, the timeline of the Expanded Universe was deemed non-canon and rebranded as Legends. But the man can still dream of portraying a canonical version of Kyle Katarn. He explained the EU characters who have made their way into canon.

“Thrawn was a part of Legends and they brought him back for The Clone Wars so who knows? Kyle Katarn or Dash Rendar, just so many cool people.”

As a sidenote, Thrawn was actually brought back for Rebels, not The Clone Wars. Thrawn did, however, take part in the Clone Wars in the flashback portions of the novel Thrawn: Alliances. Kohli also explained the tweet where he alluded to the possibility of playing Ezra Bridger.

“I was trolling. I heard rumors that there was a casting call looking for a live-action Ezra that was looking for Asian actors in their late twenties, early thirties,” Kohli explained for the tweet. “I had watched a bit of Rebels that morning, so it was fresh in my mind. I was going to the gym and I thought I’d fire off a cheeky tweet.”

But Kohli did not expect the responses.

“I say stuff like that all the time and everyone ignores me, it’s just me being a little geek and fancasting myself. I came back to my phone and I realized I may have kicked up a hornet’s nest. But because I’m a troll and a bit of a child I ended up doubling down because I couldn’t help myself. I’m part of the Star Wars community as much as anyone. It doesn’t matter that I’m an actor. I know it can be a toxic place. I’ve seen it, and it hurts. But when that Ezra stuff went out, the outpouring of support, positivity, and celebration felt so good. It sucked that it was bollocks, but it just made me say ‘this fandom is awesome."

“The fanart came out, even people who knew I was trolling weren’t upset. I found that really refreshing after what’s happened in recent years. If this were a real announcement, it wasn’t met with any kind of racism, just complete and utter joy.”

So just to be clear, Rahul Kohli is not playing Ezra Bridger in The Mandalorian season 2. But knowing Disney and Lucasfilm, who knows what the future holds?

Written By Pat Kusnadi

Syndicated From Culture Slate