Diana Lee Inosanto: Portraying Morgan Elsbeth in Ahsoka

Since The Mandalorian Chapter 13: The Jedi, Star Wars fans have been wondering about Morgan Elsbeth’s fate after being taken into custody by Ahsoka Tano to answer for her crimes and the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn. The mystery behind this fascinating character was finally revealed in Ahsoka, where we learned so much more about Lady Morgan—from her plan (and its successful execution) of rescuing Thrawn from his long exile to her deep connection with the Nightsisterhood. Actress Diana Lee Inosanto returns (check out our previous interview here) to discuss her grand comeback in Ahsoka, diving deep into character development—from Morgan’s Magick to wielding the Blade of Talzin in a duel to the death in the season finale.

Diana Lee Inosanto shared that at the time she was shooting The Mandalorian, she knew the Magistrate was a Nightsister, but confessed that she never expected for the character’s journey to evolve into what it became. When she got the call from her manager about her return to the galaxy far, far away in the new live-action show, Ahsoka, she could not contain her excitement: “I remember I was at Disneyland by Pirates of the Caribbean, and when I got the call I screamed on the phone and then started crying, because it was such a miracle and even then I didn’t know what I would be doing exactly. I just knew I was so happy that again, I was allowed to be able to creatively be in the [Star Wars] sandbox with Dave [Filoni] and Jon [Favreau] … they’re intoxicating; I love being around their energy. That’s kind of how it all began once again for me.”

In terms of characterization, Morgan Elsbeth is a fascinating antagonist. Her allegiance to Thrawn, to the Empire makes her a villain, but her true mission to rebuild her heritage, the Nightsisterhood is what really defines her as a character. This was subtly revealed in the season finale of Ahsoka, where Lady Morgan secretly recited her vow, “For Dathomir” as Thrawn walks away to embark on his journey back to the known galaxy, and she prepares for her final battle. Diana Lee Inosanto said about her character studies for Ahsoka: “I thought whoever is in Thrawn’s circle, they are all going to have common characteristics and patterns. He is also going to look for certain things out of these people. Timothy Zahn was very important to my research, and then of course I revisited The Clone Wars and Rebels (I watched them ten years back with my sons, but of course I never knew that Star Wars would be in my future). I knew how important it was to really examine Thrawn’s world and also the Nightsisters. By the time I was working on Ahsoka, I kind of knew where her ambitions were. I knew how important Dathomir was, that she was extremely laser focused on making sure that she could accomplish her goals of restoring not only the Empire but also Dathomir and her people.”

Arguably one of the most exciting parts of Ahsoka was finally the showcase of Magick, the dark side supernatural technique wielded by the Nightsisters—which Lady Morgan used to activate the star map in a visual spectacle of hand language: “The [Magick] manipulation was actually inspired by Wing Chun’s Sil Lim Tao, particularly Fook Sao, which is something that I introduced to the filmmakers as we were preparing for the scenes,” she said.

The most epic moment for Lady Morgan was her Nightsisterhood initiation—leading her to wield the Blade of Talzin in a final duel against Ahsoka Tano. For the mystical blade, Diana Lee Inosanto revealed that her experience growing up with her father, the legendary Dan Inosanto who taught her everything there is to know about martial arts and blades from all over the world, led her to advise the filmmakers on finding the right sword: “In Thailand, they have a gorgeous sword system called Krabi-Krabong. It’s a two handed style blade, more aggressive than most. That’s how I saw the Blade of Talzin. I was so happy that they incorporated that along with Doug Chiang’s finesse of implementing it into the Star Wars universe.”

Then the actress delved into the fighting style, “[Fight Coordinator] Ming Qiu comes from a very strong Wushu background out of China. I loved how she thought of the idea of igniting the sword with Magick. It’s been a long time since I had performed anything within that Wushu context. She also learned to speak my martial arts language. For instance, in Filipino martial arts and certain sword fighting styles, you learn different angles, so they implemented the numbering system that I used so they knew how to communicate with me during the fight scenes.”

In the season finale of Ahsoka, Elsbeth meets her end in the most poetic and powerful way possible. Diana Lee Inosanto’s request to the filmmakers was that she would die by her own weapon: “I remember sending a video of different death concepts, then Ming came up with her own magic of putting it all together. What I didn’t know is that they would also add the lightsaber slash … I didn’t see it coming!” The actress added, “It was really cool to do that fight scene. It took us about six days with a one day break in between, and I was exhausted. Even as a stunt woman in my younger years, I had never done such an intense fight scene. I have to give a loving shoutout to our stunt double team, because there’s no way you could get through a fight scene that long without having your doubles there to give you a break or to take the bumps and bruises. My double Natalie Padilla, who has some lineage under my father, did an amazing job. She’s an incredible stunt woman, and I know the kind of sacrifice you’re making with your body because you truly are an athlete … you are like a combination ballerina and football player; you have to know choreography and timing but at the same time you’re hitting the ground.”

Although Diana Lee Inosanto closed the circle (?) to this compelling antagonist, her outstanding performance as Morgan Elsbeth is forever imprinted into Star Wars history. Please make sure to follow her on Instagram to follow along her journey and make sure to share your favorite Lady Morgan moments on our social media platforms.

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