That's not coincidence, that's destiny.
If you watched last week's episode of 'The Mandalorian', you'll no doubt have seen Rosario Dawson bring the animated character Ahsoka Tano to life for the first time.
The apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, who'd later become Darth Vader, Ahsoka Tano was one of the main characters in the animated 'Clone Wars' series which Dave Filoni - the writer and director of last week's episode - created. Although Tano was voiced by Ashley Eckstein, Rosario Dawson was fan-cast as Tano long ago.
But more than just fan-casting, Dawson revealed in an interview with Vanity Fair that she actually had a personal connection not just with 'Star Wars' from being a fan, but in the fact that she knew Hayden Christensen, the actor who played Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in the prequel trilogy.
" I had a particular kind of interest in her and in that character because when I first started acting at 15, I did this movie, 'Kids', and I got paid like $1,000 to work on it. When the movie came out, I decided at 16 that I wanted to continue pursuing acting. My dad’s mom said, 'Well, if you’re going to do that, and you’re 16 years old, then you need to study acting,' and put me in Strasberg. And it happened to be that summer when Hayden Christensen was in—we had the same class."
Not only that, Dawson and Christensen ended up starring together in the indie drama 'Shattered Glass', wherein Christensen played the lead and Dawson was one of the supporting cast. By all accounts, Dawson was cast in the role at least a year ago, but was only actually confirmed in the role the day the episode aired.
In fact, remember that famous photo of George Lucas cradling Baby Yoda? As it turns out, that was the day Rosario Dawson first arrived on set dressed as Ahsoka Tano, and was standing just off to the side when the picture was taken.
We'll have a review of this week's episode this coming Friday afternoon.