Dave Filoni discusses writing the new Star Wars series Ahsoka and how The Mandalorian affected his plans for the character. Filoni created Ahsoka Tano, the adolescent, slightly grating Padawan assigned to Anakin Skywalker’s mentorship, with George Lucas for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars back in 2008. Though she wasn’t instantly beloved by fans, she stuck around for the first five seasons, and by the time Ahsoka was written out of the show, she had matured into an important, empathetic character. Her thrilling return in Star Wars: Rebels, which featured a violent reunion with her former master Darth Vader, made Ahsoka into a fan-favorite.
Filoni’s latest work for Star Wars has been with Jon Favreau on Disney+’s hit show The Mandalorian, which follows the story of Pedro Pascal’s bounty hunter Din Djarin and his quest to protect the lovable Yoda-lookalike Grogu. Filoni has used the live-action show to bring some of his animated series’ most popular characters to the small screen again, including former Dark Saber-wielder Bo-Katan. In season 2 of the show, fans went wild when Rosario Dawson arrived as Ahsoka, wielding her dual lightsabers and crossing paths with Djarin and Grogu in “Chapter 13: The Jedi.” The character’s live-action debut was soon followed by the announcement of a spinoff series, Ahsoka, which will see the Jedi somehow reunited with Anakin (played by Hayden Christensen), possibly as a force ghost of his former self, as she embarks on her own solo adventures in the unseen period after the original trilogy.
Speaking to Empire about writing the upcoming series, Filoni talks of his excitement for the project, calling the process "thrilling." The writer explains he has been planning to do a series about the Jedi “for a long time,” but admits he never imagined it would come from “a guy [like] Din Djarin, or a child that looks like Yoda.” Filoni calls the process a “great lesson” about how fellow creatives including Favreau can lend “dimension and depth” to such an idea. Read the creator’s full quote below:
It’s thrilling, I gotta tell you […] It’s something you imagine doing for a long time. And then it’s kind of startling when you’re sitting there, and now you have to do it. […] I thought of this adventure for Ahsoka for a long time, and it’s interesting to see how it’s evolved […] Years ago, I never would have imagined that it was sprung from a branch of a tree that had anything to do with a guy [like] Din Djarin, or a child that looks like Yoda. It’s a great lesson for me on how, when you have other creatives like Jon Favreau, they can help lend such dimension and depth to what you’re doing.
Fans are very excited to see what adventures lie ahead for Dawson’s Ahsoka, with her The Mandolorian appearance teasing a rematch with Star Wars: Rebels’ villainous Grand Admiral Thrawn, last seen alongside Ezra Bridger in the show’s finale. The proposed continuation of Rebels was given even more weight recently, when Natasha Liu Bordizzo was cast as the live-action version of Sabine Wren. The Mandalorian’s Katee Sackhoff has also expressed eagerness at seeing her character Bo-Katan team up with Ahsoka, which is very much a possibility.
Filoni’s original plans for an Ahsoka show may have been vastly different, but it was only after her standout guest appearance on The Mandalorian that the character’s future adventures came to light. The heroic Jedi has certainly come a long way over the years, but it seems her impact on the Star Wars universe is only just beginning. Filoni’s work on The Mandalorian has birthed an arsenal of new projects for Disney and Lucasfilm, including next month’s The Book of Boba Fett. Ahsoka is currently in development, but is expected to come to Disney+ sometime in the next year.
Source: Empire