Acting as a sequel to the animated Star Wars: Rebels and laying the groundwork for Dave Filoni’s crossover film, the series has a rich history of lore and stories to draw upon but still has plenty of wiggle room given how little casual audiences know about the 30-year period between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens. The end of Rebels saw Jedi Ezra Bridger sacrifice himself to thwart Grand Admiral Thrawn, with the two disappearing into an unknown destination in the galaxy and Ahsoka Tano taking Mandalorian Sabine Wren under her wing in the search for Ezra. Using Ahsoka’s episode in the second season of The Mandalorian as a launchpad to continue the storyline as live-action, this is a series that more casual fans might want to skip. Though don’t write off Star Wars animation; Clone Wars season seven was incredible.
It is thrilling to see characters that audiences know and love make the jump to live-action
At the time of writing, the first three episodes out of the eight have been released. The typical six-episode Disney Plus shows have long had an issue with pacing, but so far, so good. Hopefully, eight episodes will fix the pacing issue and become the standard (or minimum). Given that the show is setting up a future film, I suspect that Thrawn will not be defeated by the end of the series, leaving audiences in suspense until the not yet confirmed date for Dave Filoni's film.
The series has a rich history of lore and stories to draw upon but still has plenty of wiggle room
With Thrawn’s prescence looming, Ahsoka introduces four main antagonists in the race to a map that leads to Thrawn, and by extension Ezra: the late Ray Stevenson as Baylon Skoll, a former Jedi turned mercenary; the quiet Shin Hati, Skoll’s apprentice; the mysterious Marrok, whose identity is being hotly theorised across social media; and Morgan Elspeth, a live-action Nightsister who appeared in the earlier mentioned episode of The Mandalorian. It seems that Disney are embracing the wider lore of the Star Wars universe and introducing them to an audience who may not have encountered Nightsisters, Thrawn or the crew of the Phantom before.
It is thrilling to see characters that audiences know and love make the jump to live-action but often character traits and histories can be lost in translation. Fortunately, Ahsoka is nailing the characterisation we remember and yet makes them feel more mature, more battle-weary whilst conveying the strain on relationships from the off-screen initial search for Ezra. As expected from recent Star Wars shows, the costume design, settings and CGI looks superb, fully immersing audiences in the ships and planets.
With a strong start, will the rest of Ahsoka live up to expectations? Hopefully the show will follow in the footsteps of Andor in consistency rather than Marvel's Secret Invasion which released earlier this year which was a serious let-down and dip in quality. Over the seasons of Clone Wars, audiences who initially found Ahsoka Tano irritating began to love her with Ahsoka becoming a fan favourite that has fans wanting to know more about her story. I can only hope that audiences meeting her for the first time delve into the animated shows.
