While promoting her latest project, actress Claudia Black was interviewed by Bleeding Cool, who asked her about her role in Ahsoka, where she played Great Mother Klothow. When asked if she was going to be in Season 2, which is due to air on Disney Plus sometime next year, she was frank and open about the fact that she was not able to return to the role.
In an open discussion, the actress stated that she was signed up for the second season but due to changes in the conditions set out by Disney, she no longer felt that the pay offered was enough for her to rejoin the cast and she sadly chose to part ways with the production.
“Well, I’m going to be transparent. They picked up season two, picked me up with it, and then Disney, which is structuring things differently these days, could not pay me what I needed to be paid as a single mother to keep all my responsibilities going at home in Los Angeles, because they were filming in London. It was not something that they could make happen, and therefore, I had to bow out for season two.”
(L-R): Klothow; Claudia Black), Aktropaw (Jeryl Prescott Gallien), Lakesis (Jane Edwina Seymour) and Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) in Lucasfilm’s STAR WARS: AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Claudia Black is a veteran sci-fi actor, having had main roles in TV series Farscape and Stargate as well as movie roles including Pitch Black and voice acting for video games across numerous franchises, including Mass Effect. She joined the cast of Ahsoka to play Klothaw, one of the Great Mothers, the leaders of the Nightsisters based on their extragalactic homeworld of Peridea. She was seen aiding Thrawn in delaying the efforts of Ahsoka and her allies to allow the Grand Admiral to escape back to his home galaxy, bringing them to the Nightsister planet of Dathomir.
Despite being sad at not returning she was full of enthusiasm for the opportunity of working in a galaxy far, far away, which she described as a very ‘playful’ environment to be working in. She shared her gratitude for the experience and for working with the cast and crew, recalling she sent Dave Filoni an email saying “thanks for the ride”. She also praised the technology of The Volume, seeing it as the next evolution of the filmmaking technology George Lucas had developed while making his Star Wars films.
She also talked about the joy of filming something her younger son could relate to, as he is a big fan of The Clone Wars and who, despite his mother not being able to talk about her work due to NDAs, quickly identified the role she was playing from small snippets of conversation.
“He was like, ‘Are you talking about the Night Sisters? What’s the show?’ He heard one little thing, and he was like, ‘I know exactly who she’s talking about,’ so it was fun to go into and do something relatable with him. but very sad to not be able to continue that at the end of the day.”
While the new hasn’t been confirmed by Lucasfilm or Disney, it is likely that the role will be recast (as happened with Rory McCann replacing the late Ray Stevenson as Balyan Skoll), as we understand from the fact that she was going to come back to the role, which means the character had more scenes in the second season. Ahsoka Season 2 will air on Disney Plus in 2026.
A teacher from Wales in the UK, Aled has loved Star Wars ever since that Star Destroyer flew over his head and blew his mind.