How David Tennant Ended Up Playing Huyang In Star Wars
"May I introduce you to architect and lightsaber designer Huyang?" That's the line Ahsoka Tano (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) says as the ancient droid Huyang appears for the first time in the animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars." Voiced by "Doctor Who" alum David Tennant, the character has been around for centuries, creating lightsabers and teaching young Jedi padawans. He recently appeared in live-action, again voiced by Tennant, in the Disney+ series "Ahsoka."
After the Republic falls, Huyang is not only an incredible source of information, but also someone who gives gentle critique, as he does for Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) when she's trying to learn to use the Force. He's a fan-favorite droid, voiced by a fan-favorite Doctor. (Look, I love all the Doctors Who, but Tennant often ends up at the top of the list of most-loved Doctor regenerations.) How did Tennant end up in another humongous franchise that has been around for many decades? Let's take a look at how he was cast in the first place.
'I just thought David Tennant's performance was just fantastic'
According to a 2013 interview with IGN, "Clone Wars" and "Ahsoka" creator Dave Filoni — who was recently promoted to chief creative officer at Lucasfilm — discovered the magic that is David Tennant because his wife was having him watch "Doctor Who." He loved the Rose and Doctor arc, and once he found out that Tennant was a "Star Wars" fan, the pieces fell into place. He told the site:
" ... I thought, 'Well, this will be a great merging of the fan world if I could get him interested in this.' I only like to offer those roles if it's going to be a really good role, and I thought Huyang was going to be a really interesting robot. I was basing him on a lot of old Ralph McQuarrie designs for robots and droids.
"Luckily, we tracked David down, and he was gracious enough to take the role. It was fantastic just getting to talk with him and his enthusiasm for the project, so I just really appreciated it. And you know, he just nailed it. George [Lucas] even really loved the tandem of him and Artoo. I thought that they were a great match."
That wasn't the only thing he's said about Tennant as Huyang. He also spoke about it in a video from The RaeSide published in August 2023, where he praised the actor's "Doctor Who" work. "There was such a quizzical nature to the character, a sense of whimsy, but he could still get very powerful emotion out of the character, a lot of intensity, a lot of anger," he said. "It's just a great display of range. I thought, 'Man, I'd love to get this guy on 'Clone Wars' somehow.'"
A voice with centuries of wisdom
It's brilliant casting, if I may gush for a moment. I love him in both franchises. I think part of the appeal is that David Tennant's voice is pretty recognizable; "Doctor Who" fans have a built-in feeling that this is a wise person who has centuries of universal knowledge behind whatever he's saying. I suppose you could say the same thing for fans of "Good Omens" (where he plays a fallen angel who has been around for all of time) who only discovered Tennant's Huyang in "Ahsoka." Of course, his performances are great across the board, but there is something to be said for many audience members having immediate feelings about him from his past work.
Whether Huyang will play a large role going forward remains to be seen, but I hope he ends up having a significant presence in the "Star Wars" film that will be the culmination of the Disney+ "Star Wars" series. Tennant has a warmth to his voice that balances out the overly cool and "over it" vibes that Rosario Dawson is giving Ahsoka in her current form.
"Ahsoka" and "Star Wars: The Clone Wars" are currently streaming on Disney+.