Ahsoka season 2 has one confirmed new presence and one very large unanswered question. Tommie Earl Jenkins, known to game audiences for playing Die-Hardman in Death Stranding, is due to appear in the next season of the Star Wars series. His character has not been publicly identified. That gap has given fans plenty of room to speculate, and the leading theory is that Jenkins could be taking on Lando Calrissian.
It is an appealing possibility: Lando is an Original Trilogy character with an established connection to the wider Rebel orbit, he was alive during the period in which Ahsoka takes place, and the show has already built its cast around characters whose stories began in animation. But it is important to separate the known details from the deductions. Jenkins appearing in the season is supported by comments from Sabine Wren actor Natasha Liu Bordizzo. Jenkins playing Lando is not confirmed.
That distinction matters because fan theories often turn a handful of compatible details into an assumed reveal. At present, this is a plausible reading of limited information rather than a casting announcement.
What is actually known about Jenkins’ Ahsoka role?
Reports connecting Jenkins to Ahsoka season 2 first emerged in April 2026 after viewers spotted the production on his Actors Access page. Actors Access is an industry casting-profile service, and a listing can offer an early indication that an actor is attached to a project. It is not, on its own, the same as a studio announcement, and Disney has not formally named Jenkins’ role.
There is, however, a more direct indication that Jenkins will be on screen. Bordizzo, who plays Sabine Wren, responded on Instagram that scenes involving Jenkins in the new season made her cry. That establishes an emotional response to material featuring him, but it does not identify who he plays, explain the circumstances of the scene, or prove the scale of his part.
Fans have also pointed to reports that Jenkins filmed with Eman Esfandi, the live-action Ezra Bridger. Taken together, an apparently meaningful scene with Sabine and a connection to Ezra makes a substantial role seem possible. It still leaves open a vast number of possibilities: an original character, a returning figure from Star Wars animation, a Rebel-era contact, or someone connected to a story thread not yet disclosed.
Why Lando is the theory people keep returning to
The Lando idea is rooted in continuity as much as casting wishful thinking. Lando Calrissian has already intersected with the crew from Star Wars Rebels. In the animated series’ first-season episode “Idiot’s Array,” he crosses paths with the group. That is not proof that he must meet them again in Ahsoka, but it gives writers an existing relationship to revisit rather than requiring the show to manufacture one from scratch.
The time period also does not rule him out. The series is set in an era after the original trilogy, when Lando would still be active in the galaxy. He survives until the events of The Rise of Skywalker, so there is no canon obstacle to the character appearing here.
In Star Wars discussion, canon refers to stories and events that form the official continuity of the franchise. A theory being canon-compatible simply means it does not contradict established events. It does not make the theory likely, much less confirmed. Lando fits the timeline; many other characters could fit it too.
There is also precedent for streaming Star Wars projects featuring familiar Original Trilogy figures. Luke Skywalker appeared in the season 2 finale of The Mandalorian and later in The Book of Boba Fett. That history demonstrates that these series can bring legacy characters into newer stories. It does not establish that every unexplained casting choice is a legacy-character recast.
Age has been raised as a potential complication. Jenkins is 60, while Lando would be roughly 50 at this point in the story. It is a fair observation, though age alone is an imprecise casting clue. Screen performance, styling, story needs, and the passage of time within an expansive fictional setting all affect how an actor is read in a role. More importantly, no official character name exists against which to measure the comparison.
The Ezra and Sabine clues are suggestive, not decisive
The theory’s strongest appeal is narrative. Ezra and Sabine are core parts of the Rebels legacy that Ahsoka continues. A reunion with Lando could carry the weight of shared history, and a scene designed to land emotionally with Sabine might naturally involve someone familiar to viewers of the animated series.
But emotional impact is not a character identifier. A scene can make an actor cry because it involves a farewell, a return, a sacrifice, a family revelation, a hard-won reunion, or an entirely new relationship. The audience does not know the scene’s context, who else is involved, or whether Bordizzo was describing the writing, the performance, or the experience of filming it.
Likewise, filming alongside Esfandi means Jenkins’ character may have a connection to Ezra, but it gives no reliable indication of whether that connection is friendly, adversarial, personal, brief, or central to the season. Productions routinely shoot scenes with actors whose characters have only a limited overlap.
That does not make the theory uninteresting. It means the available evidence supports the modest claim: Jenkins may have a notable role that intersects with familiar characters. Moving from that claim to “he is definitely Lando” requires information that has not been made public.
Ahsoka season 2 is already promising more animated-era connections
Esfandi has said at LA Comic Con that live-action versions of other well-loved characters from Rebels and/or The Clone Wars will appear in season 2, and that viewers will be pleased by them. That comment gives the Lando speculation a useful wider context: the new season is expected to deepen its links to the animated side of Star Wars.
Yet Lando is not principally a character from either of those two series, even though he has appeared in Rebels. Esfandi’s wording could point to any number of returning animated characters, which makes it a broad tease rather than a specific Lando hint. The smart reading is that season 2 intends to reward viewers invested in those shows, while keeping its actual roster under wraps.
The season is also set to include additional Clone Wars flashbacks. Flashbacks are scenes set earlier than a story’s main present-day timeline, commonly used to add context or revisit relationships. In Ahsoka, they offer a natural way to revisit Anakin Skywalker and the period that shaped Ahsoka Tano, without suggesting that every returning character needs to be physically present in the series’ main timeline.
Hayden Christensen, who plays Anakin, has expressed interest in gathering the group for a live-action Clone Wars show. That is an aspiration, not confirmation that such a project is in development. For now, the confirmed direction is more limited: Ahsoka season 2 will contain more flashback material tied to that era.
Why Jenkins would be an intriguing fit, whatever the character proves to be
Jenkins’ work as Die-Hardman makes his arrival especially notable for players familiar with Death Stranding. The character is integral to the game’s politically charged, emotionally intense story, and Jenkins’ performance had to carry both authority and vulnerability. Those are qualities that could serve a returning Star Wars figure, but they would be just as valuable for an original character built for Ahsoka.
That crossover interest also sits neatly alongside the broader creative conversation around Kojima-related work. Hideo Kojima’s recent praise for a television season is a reminder that the games and screen worlds surrounding Death Stranding talent often overlap in the audience’s attention, even when the projects themselves are unrelated.
For Star Wars, the bigger question is what sort of role Jenkins would enable. An original character could open a new corner of the post-Empire galaxy or sharpen a conflict already facing Ahsoka, Sabine, and Ezra. A returning character such as Lando could connect the show more directly to the Original Trilogy while giving its animated cast another shared point of history. Each option has narrative value, and neither can currently be chosen with confidence.
What to watch for before the premiere
Until Disney identifies Jenkins’ character, the most reliable approach is to treat any apparent clue as provisional. A character name in official promotional material, a verified cast list, a trailer that shows Jenkins in costume, or an explicit statement from the production would turn the conversation from inference into evidence.
For now, the theory has a coherent foundation: Jenkins is in the season, his work reportedly affected Bordizzo deeply, he has reportedly shared scenes with Esfandi, Lando has prior history with the Rebels crew, and the character can fit this era of continuity. None of those points independently confirms the role, and together they remain circumstantial.
Ahsoka season 2 is scheduled to begin streaming on Disney Plus on January 20, 2027. Whether Jenkins emerges as Lando Calrissian or someone entirely unexpected, the secrecy around the part has already accomplished one thing: it has made a relatively small piece of casting news into a genuine Star Wars mystery.
