Star Wars Rebels voice actor Kevin McKidd is eager to reprise his role in the upcoming third season of The Mandalorian on Disney+.
After a fan expressed the desire to see McKidd portray a live-action version of Fenn Rau in The Mandalorian Season 3 on Twitter, McKidd responded with an enthusiastic "I agree!"
McKidd wouldn't be the first voice actor to bring their animated Star Wars character to life. The Mandalorian Season 2 saw actor Katee Sackhoff appear as Bo-Katan Kryze, a character she previously voiced on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
It's worth noting that experience in a Star Wars animated series doesn't guarantee the part, should certain characters transition from animation to live-action. Actor Andrew Kishino was replaced by star Forest Whitaker as Saw Gerrera in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, despite originating the role in The Clone Wars. Whitaker later voiced Gerrera on Rebels and in the video game Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, effectively ending Kishino's association with the part.
Similarly, Ahsoka Tano's vocal performer for both The Clone Wars and Rebels, Ashley Eckstein, was famously passed over in favor of Rosario Dawson when the character guest-starred in The Mandalorian Season 2. Dawson has since reprised the role for an extended cameo in The Book of Boba Fett and is set to headline her own Ashoka spinoff show. That series will reportedly introduce Mena Massoud as Rebels protagonist Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray in the show), while Lars Mikkelson will return as Grand Admiral Thrawn, after previously voicing the villain in Rebels.
The Star Wars franchise's live-action/animation crossover trend isn't purely one-sided, however, and actors who first play a part in live-action occasionally go on to voice that character in animated form, as well. This happened most recently when Ming-Na Wen starred as a much younger version of her Mandalorian and Book of Boba Fett character, Fennec Shand, in the 2021 animated series Star Wars: The Bad Batch.
The latest character to jump from animation to live-action was bounty hunter Cad Bane in The Book of Boba Fett's latest episode, "Chapter 6: From the Desert Comes a Stranger." Bane was voiced by his original Clone Wars performer, Corey Burton, while stuntman Dorian Kingi physically played the part on set. The character's appearance sent Star Wars fans flying to social media to rave about the live-action version of Bane, along with the rest of The Book of Boba Fett Episode 6's many high-profile cameos.
The first two seasons of The Mandalorian are available to stream on Disney+. Season 3 does not yet have a premiere date.
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