Now that Lucasfilm have confirmed the news that everyone was expecting and announced a solo series for Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano, the chances of her returning in The Mandalorian‘s season 2 finale have dropped. “The Jedi” was a solid live-action debut for the fan favorite character, and she revealed some vital information surrounding Baby Yoda’s backstory, but in retrospect, it now appears to have been more of a backdoor pilot than the introduction of a supporting player.
Having name-dropped Grand Admiral Thrawn, we already know where the plot is heading in the loosest of terms, and it also opens the door for Dave Filoni to bring several other major names from the animated back catalogue into the Disney Plus mythology. Not only that, but Ahsoka has now pulled ahead of fellow Mandalorian returnee Boba Fett and holds a unique Star Wars record all to herself.
If you include Ashley Eckstein’s voice cameo in The Rise of Skywalker, Anakin’s former Padawan is currently the only character in the franchise’s history to headline her own episodic series having already appeared in live-action and animated movies and TV shows, as well as expanded universe novels, comic books and video games.
As ScreenRant explains:
Clone Wars was only the beginning of Ahsoka’s journey. Ahsoka later returned in the animated series Star Wars Rebels and then received her own novel, Ahsoka, in 2016. She’s since made numerous appearances in comics – Jedi of the Republic, Darth Vader: Dark Lord of the Sith – and video games, such as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes and Star Wars: Force Arena, as well as being mentioned in Star Wars Battlefront II. She also received a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, thus solidifying her jump into the live-action films. Because of all of that, she was tied with Boba Fett for a Star Wars record – appearing in all forms of canon – but now that she has her own TV show, she’s passed Boba.
Of course, Temuera Morrison is also heavily rumored to be getting his own Mandalorian spinoff, which would tie them once again, but at the moment, Ahsoka Tano is currently out in front. That’s a remarkable turnaround for someone that the fans didn’t exactly take to their hearts immediately following her introduction in 2008’s widely panned The Clone Wars movie, but in just a dozen years, Snips has become an integral part of a galaxy far, far away across every conceivable form of media.