With characters like Sabine Wren, Hera Syndulla, and Ezra Bridger, all characters from Rebels, making their live-action debuts next to the titular Ahsoka Tano in the Ahsoka television series, a lot of Star Wars fans are naturally wondering if this was Dave Filoni‘s way of making that animated sequel.
The spinoff series ended with Ahsoka and Sabine going on a search for Ezra Bridger in the Unknown Regions. Now, with Ahsoka taking the story up following the character’s live-action resurgence in The Mandalorian, Snips is on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, who might be returning with an army of his own as the “heir to the empire.”
For those Star Wars stans who’ve followed the story closely, this sounds entirely too much like a Star Wars Rebels season 5, and Dave Filoni isn’t necessarily ruling out that interpretation.
“I suppose that’s one way of looking at it, because of the epilogue that I did in Rebels. Definitely all signs are indicating that there’s a continuation,” he told Entertainment Weekly in a recent interview. “For me, when I’m telling those stories, I don’t limit things like, ‘Oh, well, I did it an animation, so I would do it distinctly different in live action.’ There’s just the story that it is, and I was telling it in one medium.”
Then again, Filoni notes that Ahsoka will do its own thing in the live-action medium, because every art form has its own expanse of opportunities and limitations.
“Rebels is a different style than Clone Wars. Even visually, that changed the way I could execute certain things in Rebels. The story kind of evolved since I worked on Rebels. Working with [Jon Favreau] and setting things down in The Mandalorian created an opportunity to see: How does Ahsoka work as a character in live action?”
Still pretty badass from what we’ve seen in The Mandalorian, so Ahsoka isn’t deviating too much from that aspect of the character in live-action. Rosario Dawson and her stunt doubles have also done a wonderful job of bringing the former Jedi’s moveset to another medium in The Mandalorian, an accomplishment that we hope has passed on to the production on her own solo outing.
That only leaves her characterization, which is still shrouded in ambiguity following her confrontation with Vader in Rebels. Will Ahsoka be able to reconcile her traumatic past and find peace in the Force? And if so, will she finish her journey as a Jedi again by the time this is over?
These are questions that only the TV show itself can answer when it premieres on Disney Plus sometime in August.