A familiar face from the Star Wars galaxy won’t be returning to Ahsoka, and she says the reason is simple and painful: Disney wouldn’t pay her enough to survive as a single mother while filming overseas.
Claudia Black, who played Nightsister Klothow in the first season of the hit Disney+ series, revealed in an interview with Bleeding Cool that she “had to bow out” of the upcoming second season after a salary dispute made the job financially impossible. The show films in London, but Black lives in Los Angeles — and the numbers, she said, simply didn’t add up.
“They picked up season two, picked me up with it,” Black explained, “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.”
She said the studio’s offer wasn’t enough to cover the costs of supporting her family while living abroad for production. “It was not something that they could make happen, and therefore, I had to bow out for season two.”
Black called it a heartbreaking decision. She said she emailed showrunner Dave Filoni to thank him, writing, “What a ride!” Growing up in the late ’70s and ’80s, she said working in the Star Wars universe felt like stepping into a childhood dream — one she had hoped to continue, especially with a son who loves the franchise.
But after running the math, Black says reality won. “They call it ‘show business’ for a reason,” she said. “It’s like 90 per cent business and 10 per cent show.” She added that she understands the industry’s tight budgets, the shifting economics, and the difficulty of getting anything financed in the current climate — but it didn’t make her exit any less disappointing.
“They could not, sadly, support a single mom, and I’m very sad about that,” she said. “We all had to do our sums and move on.”
Ahsoka, starring Rosario Dawson as former Jedi Ahsoka Tano, debuted in 2023 to strong fan excitement. The series follows Ahsoka as she confronts a rising threat to a fragile galaxy. Season two is expected to begin filming in 2025 — but without one of its Nightsisters.
