Disney Investor Day happened yesterday. It was expected to be a boring presentation mainly aimed at those who have a vested interest in the running of the business that is Disney and stakeholders. No one thought that this would turn into a Marvel-Phase-announcement type of show that is usually shown at large expos like SDCC. Not only was Marvel given its time to shine and show off its future line-up but Star Wars also stepped up and pulled out all the stops to present not one, not two, not even three, but NINE different projects that are being added to the current Star Wars cannon as both Disney Plus Series and Theatrical Films.
Kicking off the presentation they showed off something that fans had been wanting years for. Ahsoka Tano, originally introduced to mixed reviews by fans in the Clone Wars animated film, is finally getting her own series to be presented on Disney Plus under the title Star Wars Ahsoka.
Though Ahsoka was not initially welcomed by fans with open arms during her debut, she continued to nudge us in all the right ways and slowly but surely, she won over the fan-base. Throughout the Clone Wars series, fans would watch her grow from the arrogant, self-assured padawan assigned to Anakin Skywalker to the young woman and force wielder that nearly all of the Star Wars fandom have embraced. Continuing in Rebels where she makes many appearances as a leader in the Rebel Alliance, we get shown how far she has come in the 15 odd years since the events of episode three. She is also one of the final characters on screen, leaving fans to wonder if they would be getting a new series based around Ahsoka and her continuing adventures.
Sadly, we would not see or hear from Ahsoka again for over a year. With the announcement of the Clone Wars seventh and final season in 2018, fans felt hope that our favorite force-wielder would return along with the show. After the premature cancellation of the animated show back in 2013, followers of the series had only grown and many were wondering about rumors of a secret set of episodes that were voiced and initial animations created for before the show’s official cancellation. This grew into a hashtag on Twitter and other social platforms called #saveclonewars and became very popular in the Star Wars community. Once the season seven announcement materialized it was accompanied by the hashtag #clonewarssaved, showing fans that they had indeed helped bring this show back to life. The trailer for the final season showed off the updated quality of the Clone Wars animation style as well as the long-awaited return of Ahsoka Tano giving an iconic line to both her former master and the world watching: “It’s been a while.”
The season premiered in February 2020 to massive praise and support by the community at large and of the twelve episodes it contained, eight of the put Ahsoka in the forefront to the delight of fans. The climax of the series saw the integration of the infamous “Order 66” in the final days of the war. The final episodes were almost cinematic in quality, pulling at your emotions in every direction, and it made fans want even more of both the show and the character. Unfortunately, the show officially came to a close with creators saying they had been able to tell the story they wanted to tell and fill in a lot of the events between episode two and three.
Hope was not lost however. Another show had been making waves in the Star Wars community, and it was live-action. The Mandalorian was getting amazing reviews from both fans and critics during its first season (held just before season seven of Clone Wars) and now fans wanted to know if other Star Wars characters may show up in the series, helping tie it into the main storyline of the Star Wars Universe. While the show could have continued without adding any character from previous titles to its roster and still been hugely successful, the heads saw what the fans wanted, and they happily obliged.
During the production of the second season of the Mandalorian, rumors were flying about a certain force-user making an appearance along with other known Star Wars favs. The public wanted so much to believe that this was real that it may have even been due to this that when Rosario Dawson announced near the start of 2020 that she would love to play the part of Ahsoka Tano in a live action show for the character, the entire community got behind her and endorsed her for the roll. This turned into the biggest fan casting in Star Wars history as it was announced later that year that she had received the roll and would appear in at least one episode of the Mandalorian. Fans were ecstatic to hear this and when the time rolled around to watch the episode simply titled “Jedi” they were not disappointed.
Dawson epitomized the roll of Ahsoka and gave fans what they had wanted for so long. She was just as much the bad-ass, lightsaber wielding force-user that we had all seen in animated form brought to life. Praise for her was so high that now fans really wanted her to have her own show, only now it had to be live action.
That brings us full circle to the announcement that we are finally getting a show truly based around Ahsoka and tied into the timeline of the Mandalorian and another newly announced show called Rangers of the New Republic. All three of these shows have been announced to tie in with one-another and culminate in a climactic story event. Many are wondering if this will be something along the lines of the recent DC Aarrowverse (or CWverse) Crisis on Infinite Earths event that brought all the previous CW shows together in one hugely ambitious and successful crossover story that also included characters from past DC properties shown on the big and small screen that may not tie into the Arrowverse directly. Regardless, fans are hyped to finally have the show they have wanted for well over half a decade.
Speculation about what Ahsoka could be doing in the new series is ripe as we had a teaser of her intentions in the final moments of her battle in the Mandalorian and many wonder if this could tie in more characters from previous animated shows she appeared in such as Star Wars Rebels.
I myself am just as hyped about the future of the Ahsoka brand in the Star Wars mythos and cannot wait to see all that Disney and Lucas have instore for us as we go forward. May the force be with you, Always.
