The first season of the American television series Ahsoka is part of the Star Wars franchise, taking place in the same timeframe as the series The Mandalorian (2019–2023) after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). It follows former Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano and her allies as they try to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn from returning and uniting the remnants of the Galactic Empire against the fledgling New Republic. The season was produced by Lucasfilm and Golem Creations, with Dave Filoni as showrunner.
Rosario Dawson stars as the title character, reprising her role from The Mandalorian. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O'Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ariana Greenblatt, Lars Mikkelsen (Thrawn), and Anthony Daniels also star. A spin-off from The Mandalorian focused on Ahsoka was announced in December 2020. Filoni used the season to tell a story he had been planning since the end of the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018). It explores Ahsoka following Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020) and Rebels, and brings key characters from Rebels into live-action such as Sabine Wren (Bordizzo). Filming took place in Los Angeles from May to October 2022, using the same StageCraft virtual production technology as The Mandalorian.
The season premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on August 22, 2023, with its first two episodes. The other six episodes were released through October 3. Viewership was estimated to be high and comparable to other Star Wars series on Disney+. Reviews were generally positive, with particular praise for the performances of Dawson and Stevenson, but there was criticism for the slow pacing and some of the visuals and action sequences. The season received various accolades, including five Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award nominations. It won one of those, a posthumous award for costume designer Shawna Trpcic. A second season was confirmed in January 2024. __TOC__
Episodes
Cast and characters
Starring Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano Ariana Greenblatt as young Ahsoka Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth David Tennant voices Huyang Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger Evan Whitten as Jacen Syndulla Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn Anthony Daniels as C-3PO
Recurring
Paul Darnell as Marrok Dave Filoni as Chopper Nican Robinson as Vic Hawkins Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Carson Teva Jeryl Prescott Gallien as Aktropaw Claudia Black as Klothow Jane Edwina Seymour as Lakesis Wes Chatham as Enoch
Guests Clancy Brown as Ryder Azadi Vinny Thomas as Jai Kell Nelson Lee as Hamato Xiono Temuera Morrison as Captain Rex Elden Bennett as Admiral Ackbar
Production Background Ahsoka Tano was created for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020) by Star Wars creator George Lucas and The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni. Voiced by Ashley Eckstein, the character is the Jedi apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, the main character of the Star Wars prequel films (1999–2005). Ahsoka became a fan favorite character and Eckstein reprised her role for the follow-up animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018). Rebels was co-created by Filoni and focuses on a group of heroes who resist the Galactic Empire: the Jedi Kanan Jarrus, his apprentice Ezra Bridger, pilot Hera Syndulla, Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, Zeb Orrelios, and Hera's droid Chopper. During Rebels, Ahsoka learns that Anakin has fallen to the dark side of the Force and become the Sith lord Darth Vader. In the final season, Kanan sacrifices his life and Ezra is taken to an unknown location with antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn. The series ends with an epilogue in which Ahsoka joins Sabine to search for Ezra, leading to speculation about a new series focusing on the pair. Filoni said he had ideas for that story but nothing was in development. He described bringing the two characters together as "a unification of Clone Wars and Rebels", and said he would not want someone else to tell that story.
The franchise expanded to live-action television with the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019–2023). Creator Jon Favreau worked with Filoni to develop the series, which is set after the fall of the Empire. When thinking how to reveal details about the Jedi to the series' characters, Filoni realized that Ahsoka could provide that information. After writing and directing episodes of the first season, he felt confident enough in his filmmaking abilities to be able to introduce her to live-action in the second season without "mess[ing] it up"; it was important to Filoni that fans who grew up watching the animated Ahsoka feel that a live-action version was the same character. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February 2020 that spin-offs of The Mandalorian were being considered, and there was potential to add characters to the series to then give them their own series. Rosario Dawson was reported to be cast as Ahsoka for the second season a month later, but this was not officially confirmed until the episode she appears in, "Chapter 13: The Jedi", was released in November. Dawson studied acting with Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin in the prequel films, and first expressed interest in playing Ahsoka in live-action after her casting was suggested by a fan in February 2017. Filoni wrote and directed the episode, which depicts Ahsoka searching for Thrawn; Filoni suggested that this is before Ahsoka joins Sabine in the epilogue of Rebels. The episode introduces Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, a servant of Thrawn.
Development
Lucasfilm announced several spin-off series from The Mandalorian in December 2020, including The Book of Boba Fett (2021) and Ahsoka. The spin-offs were set in the same timeframe as The Mandalorian—during the 30 years between the films Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and were planned to culminate in a "climactic story event"; Filoni indicated that this would involve a conflict with the remnants of the Empire which Ahsoka helps build towards. The spin-offs were being concurrently developed by Favreau and Filoni, with Filoni creating, writing, and serving as lead producer and showrunner on Ahsoka. Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, Carrie Beck, and Colin Wilson were also executive producers. Peter Ramsey was hired to direct an episode by April 2022, and Filoni was confirmed to be directing multiple episodes the next month. In April 2023, the season was revealed to have eight episodes, and the other directors were announced: Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, The Book of Boba Fett Steph Green, and The Mandalorian Rick Famuyiwa. Filoni said each episode would be similar in length to The Mandalorian episodes, though he tended to prefer longer episodes than Favreau which sometimes needed to be edited down to improve pacing.
Writing Following speculation and reports about the series, Filoni confirmed that Ahsoka would continue the story he established in the epilogue of Rebels. He never expected to tell this story as a spin-off from a series like The Mandalorian, and found it intimidating to actually write after thinking about it for so many years. When asked if Ahsoka was effectively a fifth season of Rebels, Filoni said that was "one way of looking at it" but he also saw all of his Star Wars projects as one larger story. He said viewers did not need to watch The Clone Wars and Rebels to understand Ahsoka but he felt it would help, and he hoped Ahsoka would lead to new audiences discovering the animated series on Disney+. The first person Filoni sent each script to was Beck, who he had been working with since the start of Rebels, and he also appreciated getting Favreau's advice from a perspective outside of Filoni's understanding of the animated history.
The season is set after Ahsoka's appearances in the second season of The Mandalorian and in The Book of Boba Fett, and takes place concurrently with the third season of The Mandalorian. It begins with Ahsoka as a wandering rōnin who Filoni compared to the main character of Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo (1961), noting that Lucas was inspired by the works of Kurosawa when creating Star Wars. This depiction of Ahsoka comes after her decision to leave the Jedi and the subsequent destruction of that order in The Clone Wars, as well as the revelation that Anakin is Darth Vader in Rebels. This season was Filoni's first opportunity to explore these issues with the character, and he wanted to show what she thinks this all means about her own potential for darkness. He also wanted to explore Ahsoka's feelings about continuing this legacy with an apprentice of her own, and the relationships between masters and apprentices became a key theme for the season. Ahsoka is revealed to have taken on Sabine as her Padawan learner after the main events of Rebels, but they parted ways soon after when Sabine's family were killed during the purge of Mandalore and her subsequent internal struggle reminded Ahsoka too much of Anakin. Filoni was planning this storyline by the end of Rebels, having come to feel that Sabine was more than just a Mandalorian warrior. He saw similarities between her and Anakin, and chose to pair Sabine with Ahsoka in the epilogue of Rebels because of the potential for a complicated relationship between the pair. He was also interested in someone training to be a Jedi without a strong connection to the Force, feeling that differentiated this story from most Star Wars projects and made it more relatable to the audience. Filoni believed this was possible within the franchise's established rules, which state that the Force is connected to all living beings, and he believed anyone could become a Jedi with the right training.
Borrowing from J. R. R. Tolkien's novel The Lord of the Rings (1954–55), Filoni wanted Ahsoka to go through a similar transformation to the character Gandalf who begins as the wandering, unsure "Gandalf the Grey" but is later reborn as the wise and powerful "Gandalf the White". This was hinted at in the epilogue of Rebels, in which Ahsoka appears wearing all white, leading some fans to call her "Ahsoka the White". The second episode of this season recreates the epilogue in live-action, but with Ahsoka wearing gray to allow her transformation to come later. In the fifth episode, she goes through a near-death experience in the mysterious "World Between Worlds" where spirit of Anakin helps Ahsoka work through her character issues. Filoni saw the World Between Worlds, first introduced in Rebels, as a "cinematic device" that allowed him to show flashbacks to the Clone Wars for viewers who had not seen that series. He did not want this to become a "Star Wars history lesson" and focused on the relationship between Ahsoka and Anakin. Filoni saw this as the turning point for Ahsoka, allowing her to accept her past and move forward, which is signified by a costume change to "Ahsoka the White" at the end of the episode. He wanted the audience to question whether the World Between Worlds was in Ahsoka's mind or if she was actually talking to the spirit of Anakin, and he wanted to keep the focus on Ahsoka's issues rather because he felt Lucas had already resolved Anakin's character arc in the Star Wars films. Filoni chose to depict Anakin as the "heroic older brother" and famous Jedi that Ahsoka once looked up to, and prioritized seeing Christensen's performance over the Darth Vader costume, which is only seen in brief flashes.