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Star Wars Actress Kelly Marie Tran Cast as Lead of Disney’s Raya and The Last Dragon


Kelly Marie Tran is probably best known for her role as Rose in the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy, and though her character was sidelined in The Rise of Skywalker, it looks like Disney is looking to make up for it by making Tran a full-fledged Disney Princess.

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Credit: Lucasfilm/Disney

According to Entertainment Weekly, Tran will be voicing the lead of Disney's upcoming animated movie, Raya and the Last Dragon. Apparently, the part belonged originally to Cassie Steele (Rick and Morty); we don't know why they would have Tran take over, but seeing as the movie looks to have an Asian influence, it's likely Disney wanted someone who was the right ethnicity for the role.

Tran did have this to say about taking over the role of Raya:

"She is someone who is technically a princess but I think that what's really cool about this project, about this character, specifically is that everyone's trying to flip the narrative on what it means to be a princess… Raya is totally a warrior. When she was a kid, she was excited to get her sword. And she grows up to be a really badass, gritty warrior and can really take care of herself."

Tran will be playing opposite Awkwafina who is playing that part of Sisu. Sisu is apparently a dragon in human form, and she will be needing the help of Raya to try and reclaim her power. Besides that, Raya also has a trusty steed in the form of Tuk Tuk who is described as a bear crossed with an ‘insect version of an armadillo'. Here's a new image:

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Credit: Disney

After all the harassment that Tran faced when she worked on Star Wars, I'm happy to see that her career isn't stopping at any point. It's pretty great that Disney actually cast her as a new princess; they definitely owe her for what they did to Rose in TROS.

Raya and the Last Dragon is set to come out on March 12, 2021.

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