Aladdin Star Shares More Information About Cryptic Ezra Bridger Casting
Aside from being an amazing piece of television, Season 2 of The Mandalorian also marked the debut of some fan-favorite characters in live-action. Prior to this season, characters like Bo-Katan and Ahsoka were only known in the world of animation. It would also appear that Season 2 is setting up the return of more animated characters in live-action form. In the episode featuring Ahsoka, Chapter XIII: The Jedi, she confronts the episode’s antagonist, and asks about the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The last time fans saw Thrawn was at the end of Star Wars: Rebels when he was carried out into the Unknown Regions of the galaxy along with the show’s protagonist Ezra Bridger. However, from Ahsoka’s statement, it would appear that there will be two more characters making a return in live-action. This has of course sparked several debates on who should play these characters in live-action. One front-runner for the role of Ezra Bridger was Aladdin’s Mena Massoud, who stoked the rumor fires even more with a cryptic Instagram post that was captioned,
“Hey, just so you know, when I escape I won’t hurt any of you,”
which is a quote from Bridger in Rebel's second season. Massoud has now added some clarity to the meaning of that post. Massoud was recently interviewed by Screen Rant about that Instagram post, the role of Ezra Bridger, and acting in general.
When asked about the Instagram post, Massoud said it was a form of manifesting and getting his hat in the ring.
“Yeah. Just manifesting, just manifesting, trying different things. Yeah, there’s not much more I can say about that, but you know, I had heard murmurings that this role was coming up and this is becoming a real thing. So I just kinda wanted to throw my name in the ring and — yea, just part of manifesting what you want.”
Massoud went on to talk about the experience he already has in acting as a part of a franchise with Aladdin and the importance of that role saying,
“Obviously, I’ve already had one of my dreams come true with Aladdin, but I also think I could just really do it justice. I’ve worked on that kind of big, massive set before on Aladdin. I think I have that under my belt now and thankfully the film did really well, so I think I’ve proven that I can be successful in that environment. . . I think it would just be a great opportunity to take everything that I learned on a set like Aladdin and implement it into the Star Wars or Marvel or DC universe. We’re talking about manifesting, so yeah, it would mean a lot, it would mean a lot. I think I would also do a solid job and work really hard. I like what they’re doing with that world and how they’re expanding the universe.”
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There does appear to be an extra level to acting in any kind of franchise, and having some prior experience in that field is extremely helpful. Aladdin was also made by the same people who own Lucasfilm and Marvel, so Massoud already has a foot in the door.
Mena also discussed how social media has made it a lot easier for actors to get their names out there and search for roles in that way, saying,
“I think we live in an age now that’s so different than ’70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, Hollywood, where there was no social media. It was really just your representatives putting things out there for you. But now, we have the ability to put things out there for ourselves because of social media and because we can put things out there. So yeah, I just wanted to put it out there, I guess. . . It would be a dream come true.”
Of course, Mena Massoud wouldn’t be able to confirm or deny if he was involved with The Mandalorian or Star Wars in any way. However, staring as the titular character in Aladdin gives him a foot in the Disney door, and that experience on massive franchises and sets would be invaluable for something like this. It is not a stretch to think that he could appear in the show especially when The Mandalorian has already brought so many fans’ dreams to life.
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Source(s): The Direct