Ahsoka creator and writer Dave Filoni hasn’t been shy about this show continuing the Star Wars Rebels story. In an interview with EW, he was asked whether we should just think of Ahsoka as Rebels season five and said: “Definitely all signs are indicating that there’s a continuation.”
Now the first two episodes are here and very early on it’s clear that Ahsoka is aimed squarely at longtime The Clone Wars and Rebels fans. Surprisingly little time is devoted to establishing who these characters are for new viewers and the mission to track down Ezra Bridger falls a little flat if you have no idea who that is.
There are two ways of looking at this. One is that the entirety of Star Wars Rebels is available on Disney Plus (and, as of writing, is being promoted on the splash page for the service). If viewers want to get to grips with Ezra, Hera and Sabine’s story then they have 75 episodes on tap that will more than fill them in.
More realistically, only a tiny minority of Ahsoka viewers will have the time or the inclination to revisit a lengthy animated show or even do research. Admittedly there’s a smattering of light exposition within Ahsoka: that the lead character was Anakin’s padawan, that Sabine and Ezra saved the planet of Lothal, and that Sabine struggles with her Mandalorian heritage.
But Ahsoka is clearly a show for longtime fans who know the ins and outs of the more obscure corners of the Star Wars universe. Can it really be too long before we see the Ahsoka crew chatting with giant force-sensitive Loth-Wolves in live action?
Reviews are glowing so Filoni’s tactic seems to have worked. Here’s hoping the remaining six episodes fill in some of the blanks.
Ahsoka airs Wednesdays on Disney Plus.