Ahsoka star Eman Esfandi wiped out during his first big lightsaber fight

Ahsoka kicked off with one major question: Where is Ezra Bridger?

Much of the Star Wars Disney+ show centered on the hunt for the missing warrior, who disappeared into a distant galaxy in the final episode of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. Ahsoka brought him back into the fold, reintroducing the fan-favorite character as played by 27-year-old actor Eman Esfandi.

Speaking to EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast, Esfandi reveals that he's been angling to play Ezra for a very long time — before he even knew the Ahsoka show was officially happening. Before the casting process began, the King Richard star says he experienced what felt like a "Force ghost" vision of the character in his living room, and he quickly emailed his agents to tell them to keep their eyes peeled for audition opportunities.

"I sent all these pictures that I found online to my agent and manager of [Ezra] in the animated series and pictures of me with different hairstyles that I just happened to have," the actor recalls. "It was like, 'Hey, guys, when this character is casting for live action, I'm gonna play him. Use these photos. It will come in handy.' They were all like, 'Why are you saying this? Did you get information? Do you know about a role we don't know about yet?' I was just like, 'No, it's just a feeling. Just trust me.'"

Esfandi did eventually get the call to audition for an unidentified project, and he quickly pieced together that the unnamed character he taped for was Ezra. He soon got the job, and to prepare, he pored over Ezras onscreen history, adding that he "researched him like you would research a regular person who has passed away, like it was a biopic or something."

Preparing to play a lightsaber-wielding warrior also meant committing to Jedi-level training. Esfandi practiced for weeks before filming began, working with the stunt team to learn different martial arts moves and how to properly wield a blade. (Luckily, he spent years working as a professional tennis coach, which gave him a certain athletic edge.)

Still, even with all that prep, Esfandi notes with a laugh that playing a Jedi can be harder than it looks. Early in production, he filmed his very first fight scene, a pivotal moment when Ezra, Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson), and Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) face off against a whole horde of zombie-like Night Troopers.

"It's the first time you see Ezra use a lightsaber in the show against the Night Troopers, and it was the first time anyone was going to see me do my own stunts," Esfandi says. "I start, and right away I slipped and fell. I fell right away with the first hard step I took because there was gravel and dirt on the ground, and I didn't know there would be gravel and dirt on the ground. It was new! So I slipped, and it was definitely a moment where everyone was like, 'Whoa. Can he do this?'"

Eventually he got back up, and his second attempt was a bit more graceful.

"Once they swept the dirt, it was a lot faster," Esfandi says with a laugh. "I got through the whole thing. But there's something really special about slashing a bunch of troopers with a lightsaber, and the practical effects are blowing up and going off. It's pretty surreal. It feels like you're in a video game."

Listen to the full conversation with Eman Esfandi on EW's Dagobah Dispatch podcast.

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