From Westeros to the Outer Rim: Game of Thrones actor opens up about joining Ahsoka

Who's going to join Ahsoka Season 2? The Hound from Game of Thrones, yes. Rory McCann, the man we knew as the scarred and brooding Sandor Clegane, forged his legend in the cold, brutal landscapes of Westeros.

But now, he’s stepping into a galaxy far, far away, a universe of blazing suns, twin moons, ancient Force temples, and lightsabers humming in the dark. It’s a journey that carries him from the iron and ice of medieval fantasy into the shimmering vastness of science fiction, from a world where winter always looms to one where the stars whisper promises of power, legacy, and danger.

McCann is stepping into the shadow of another giant: the late Ray Stevenson, whose portrayal of Baylan Skoll in the first season of Ahsoka left a mark on the Star Wars fandom. Taking up that mantle is no small task, and McCann knows it.

“I think it's the right decision to carry on his storyline, not just cut it off,” Rory McCann explained. “We've done it before with other things. I hope the fans embrace it and I'll do my best. I'm just starting now, so I'm just trying to be in the right zone for doing it. It's pretty bloody exciting.”

For fans who watched him navigate the politics, bloodshed, and personal torment of Game of Thrones, it’s thrilling to imagine McCann now wielding a lightsaber in Ahsoka. He draws the connection himself.

“Thrones has really helped with that. Same kind of moves, same blocking. Doesn't have the same sexy sound though. Oh, my God… Lightsabers are lighter, but having said that, the Thrones swords were stunt swords and you've got to pretend that they're three times heavier than they are. But it's all pretend, really. It's all very exciting.”

Even more stirring is the personal dimension. McCann is walking into a universe that shaped his childhood.

“I remember being a kid with my dad, going to the first one probably in the late '70s and ’80s,” he recalled. “Now I'm training with a lightsaber at night, so it's pretty exciting.”

This is a story not just about professional evolution, but about a lifelong fan stepping into the arena, about a man whose screen persona was once defined by gruff, earthbound violence now becoming part of a mythic struggle between light and dark, between the cosmic and the intimate. It’s about scars and stars, steel and light, the old gods of Westeros giving way to the ancient mysteries of the Force.

Ahsoka and the weight of legacy

For Rory McCann, stepping into the role of Baylan Skoll in Ahsoka is more than just slipping on a new costume or wielding a new weapon. It’s walking into a shadow thick with memory, a space haunted by the presence of Ray Stevenson. McCann knows this and respects the deceased actor.

Also, he feels the weight, the expectation, the silent eyes of a fanbase still mourning. This isn’t the swaggering confidence of a man eager to replace. It’s the measured breath of someone stepping carefully over sacred ground.

“I'm just starting now, so I'm just trying to be in the right zone for doing it. It's pretty bloody exciting.”

Exciting, and heavy. Because what Baylan represents in the Ahsoka universe isn’t just another villain, not just another swordsman, but a man balanced between myth and reality, between the crumbling statues of the Mortis gods and the living pull of ambition.

Baylan Skoll’s story, as shown in Ahsoka, is a thread left deliberately frayed, a mystery that lingers at the edges of the Force. For the fans, he's a symbol of unfinished destinies, of the paths not yet walked. By stepping into this role, Rory McCann becomes part of that unfolding mystery, part of a larger mythos where every gesture, every line spoken, carries echoes of the past and promises of the future. This has more to do with weaving new meaning into the fabric of the galaxy than just filling a gap.

And perhaps no one’s better suited for that than Rory McCann. After all, he’s worn scars before, deep, brutal ones. He’s stood in the freezing winds of Westeros, axe and sword in hand, fighting monsters outside and inside himself.

However, where Game of Thrones' Sandor Clegane was a creature of earth and bone, Ahsoka's Baylan Skoll is something more ethereal, not bound to the mud and blood of medieval battlefields. He moves among the stars, and his wounds glow under the weight of a different kind of history.

Rory McCann: from lifelong fan to Jedi duelist

There’s a moment, small but burning bright, when Rory McCann’s voice softens when he's talking about his upcoming work in Ahsoka. Behind the gruff tones of a veteran actor, you catch the wonder of a boy who once sat in a dark theater, eyes wide, watching twin suns set over a desert world.

“I remember being a kid with my dad, going to the first one probably in the late '70s and ’80s,” McCann shared. “Now I'm training with a lightsaber at night, so it's pretty exciting.”

This isn’t just a career move. It’s a crossing of worlds. Of epic sagas. From Game of Thrones to Ahsoka, this is the man who spent years inside the hardened skin of Sandor Clegane, carrying scars like armor, now steps into a dream woven from childhood memories.

The smell of old movie theaters, the crackle of film reels, the thrill of lightsabers clashing on screen, all of it now folds into his present. He isn’t just Rory McCann, the actor; he’s Rory McCann, the lifelong fan stepping through the screen, standing on the same ground as the heroes who once shaped his imagination.

And that’s where the magic of this casting for Ahsoka truly lies. It’s not about replacing, or even just continuing, but transformation. This is about a man carrying his past roles, his past wounds, into something bigger, something woven from the myths that shaped entire generations.

From the frozen winds of Westeros to the burning stars of the Outer Rim in Ahsoka, Rory McCann walks forward, blade in hand, ready to carve his place in a galaxy that’s called to him since childhood.

Stars, scars, and the future

In the end, Rory McCann’s journey is more than just a casting update or a fandom headline. It’s the crossing of a threshold, a man stepping from one mythos into another, carrying with him the weight of scars earned on cold, brutal ground and lifting his eyes to the vastness of the stars.

The man who once fought with steel and fury across the icy battlefields of Westeros now stands on the edge of the Outer Rim, where destiny hums through lightsabers and ancient powers stir in the dark.

There’s something timeless about this moment. Stories of warriors have always been about more than their weapons. It’s the burden they carry, the choices they make, the shadows they try to outrun.

Rory McCann brings with him a legacy of grit and depth, a presence that feels carved from stone, weathered by wind and fire. And now, that same presence steps into a galaxy where the stakes are cosmic, where every duel is more than just a clash of blades, but a test of the soul.

As the second season of Ahsoka approaches, fans wait with held breath to see what McCann will bring to Baylan Skoll. They wait to see if this scarred warrior, this man shaped by winter and blood, can now wield the light and shadow of the stars. Winter may have been coming, but now the stars are calling, and Rory McCann is ready to answer.