The following story contains minor spoilers for Ahsoka Episode 7, titled "Dreams and Madness."
ARGUABLY THE MOST interesting thread of The Mandalorian Season 3 came with the subplot that dealt with the slow, building, rise of support within the New Republic for the Empire, a group that we know will eventually become the powerful and evil First Order in the sequel trilogy. Since both The Mandalorian take place after the Star Wars events of Return of the Jedi but around 20 years before The Force Awakens, we get to see a time of supposed "peace," but know that trouble is lurking for the galaxy far, far away.
With the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) in the back end of Ahsoka, that becomes abundantly clear. And like we also saw at times in The Mandalorian, we also see that there are people within Chancellor Mon Monthma's (Genevieve O'Reilly, again reprising her long-running role) New Republic ranks who are either choosing to be ignorant about the threat against democracy (think Kevin Bacon in Animal House screaming "All is well!") or are corrupt and implicit.
In the case of "Dreams and Madness," that comes in the form of a Senator named Xiono (Nelson Lee) who seemingly has a personal mission to shut down General Hera Syndulla's (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) mission to follow both Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) to Seatos. Hera is getting absolutely clobbored in her hearing, without much that Mon Mothma (who we know from Andor is one of the best people in the galaxy, heart-wise) can do... until a familiar face shows up.
Well, a face made of metal at least. C-3PO pops his head in, claiming that Senator Leia Organa has approved and signed off on Hera's mission, saving her butt and providing a bit of anxious cover for heroics (when we all know that Thrawn has something sinister cooking for the future). Given that Ahsoka takes place after Return of the Jedi—and we know that by the time The Force Awakens happens, Leia has taken the rank of General—things presumably turn out relatively OK. But we also know that after saving the galaxy from Vader and Palpatine, Leia should be pretty universally held in high regard. So C-3PO's presence here comes in might clutch for Hera.
But, as the scene reveals, Mon Mothma isn't only one of the good guys—she's smart. She knows that Leia hasn't authorized this mission just yet, and rather that Hera has called in a favor with an old droid friend. How this happened?
Not quite clear. But C-3PO is a solid droid pal as well, and has been for a long, long time.
Was Anthony Daniels playing C-3PO in Ahsoka?
If that one-of-a-kind anxiety-ridden robot voice sounded familiar, it's for good reason: Anthony Daniels has returned once again to play the great C-3PO, a role the now-77-year-old British actor has played since 1977.
Daniels, through the years, universes, and mediums, has been the only one to voice the famed robot, and that wasn't changing here. He's played C-3PO in 10 of the 11 live-action films: A New Hope. Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Return of the Sith, The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi, The Rise of Skywalker, and Rogue One. Daniels appeared in the only other live-action Star Wars film, Solo: A Star Wars Story, but in that one he played Tak, a con artist on Coruscant, rather than C-3PO.
Daniels made his live-action Disney+ debut last year, playing C-3PO in the Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries, so there's precedent already for his fun and surprising appearance in Ahsoka.
He's also voiced C-3PO in animated series like The Clone Wars and Rebels, one-offs like the Lego Star Wars specials, and video games as well. The man is C-3PO for life, and we wouldn't have it any other way.
