These days, “Star Wars” hopefully works on two levels. There’s top-level engagement for broader fans that just like the Lucasfilm brand and what it stands for, and again, these days, there’s a deeper level of commitment for the more hardcore fans that know all the ins and outs of “Star Wars” beyond just the movies. Case in point, the upcoming series, “Star Wars: Ahsoka.” The entirety of the series was born from the animated TV wing of Lucasfilm that was run by George Lucas’ heir apparent, Dave Filoni. With “The Mandalorian” and the help of Jon Favreau, who co-created the series with him, Filoni, who wrote this new “Ahsoka” series, made the jump to live-action and with it, taking a lot of the animated lore he created (or co-created) with him.
READ MORE: ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ Trailer: Rosario Dawson’s Jedi Series Launches In August
In fact, there’s a solid argument to be made that the entirety of the new “Star Wars” television universe is sprung from animation. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The “Star Wars: Ahsoka” series is, in many ways, a two-tiered best-of from Filoni’s animated realms. Obviously, it features Ahsoka Tano, a character that Filoni co-created with George Lucas on the “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” animated series.
The short version of all this is. ‘The Clone Wars’ essentially took place in the three years between “Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones” and “Star Wars: Revenge of The Sith” and was meant to showcase all the various missions and adventures that Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi were up to between the two films. The big revelation for fans who didn’t watch the series was that Anakin had been given his own Padawan learner who was Ahsoka. As the series showed—explaining why she didn’t appear in ‘Revenge of The Sith,’ although she was retroactively created for the series—was that Ahsoka didn’t finish her training and abandoned the Jedi Order. The why of that is another article, but essentially, she was framed by forces trying to make her look bad to the Jedi Order, Yoda, and Mace Windu, and that Order basically believed the accusations, but when she was exonerated, her faith in the institution was so broken, she felt betrayed and walked away from it all.
But then Ahsoka re-appeared later via another Filoni creation: “Star Wars Rebels,” which took place some ten years after ‘Revenge Of The Sith,’ well into the era of the Empire’s rule of the galaxy and ran right up into the events of “Star Wars: A New Hope.” Ahsoka reemerged in that series and became a vital member of the ‘Rebels’ team for much of the series.
This leads us to Filoni’s ‘Ahsoka’ series, which is a sequel to both series in many ways. While yes, Ahsoka (played by Rosario Dawson in live-action) was brought into the physical realm in “The Mandalorian,” her series is both a continuation of her personal story and the sequel to “Star Wars Rebels” (at least three characters from ‘Rebels’ appear for the first time in live-action in the series, Natasha Liu Bordizzo as the cocky young Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as the noble leader Hera Syndulla and Lars Mikkelsen as the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn, the latter reprising his voice from the animated series).
So, to make a long story shorter, ride-or-die “Star Wars” fans are all about “Ahsoka” as the series is a longtime-coming culmination of all they adored in Filoni’s two animated series (more characters from the series are rumored to appear too, and the droid Chopper, “voiced” by Filoni in bleeps and bloops is another one of them too). Fans will get another treat in “Ashoka” as well as Anakin Skywalker and Ashoka Tano have never been seen together on screen in live-action.
Hayden Christensen’s been rumored to return for the series for some time, and while he’s not really seen in this new teaser trailer—the one shot of him in it looks like footage recycled from the “Obi-Wan: Kenobi” series—he’s definitely heard. In fact, the voice of Anakin, by way of actor Hayden Christensen, narrates the entire series, putting everything in full circle for Ahsoka and perhaps finally explaining how Anakin will return: via flashbacks to the past.
In the teaser, Anakin is heard offering Ahsoka words of wisdom. “In this war, you’ll face more than just droids,” he warns. “As your master, it’s my responsibility to prepare you. Don’t be afraid. You can do this, Ahsoka.”
And this is another full circle moment. Because Ahsoka was a feisty, irascible, reckless teen in ‘The Clone Wars’ who eventually watched her master become more reckless himself and more out of control. By the time “Ahoska” rolls around, she is decades older, mature and wiser, and of course, it looks like she’ll be taking on the master role to Sabine Wren, who is still pretty rough around the edges by the looks of the various trailers.
Where does “Ahsoka” take the beloved character? “She seems very lone wolf, and we kind of felt that coming off of [Star Wars:] Rebels, where she works with all of these different folks, but she’s really on her own in a lot of ways,” Dawson told EW recently. “What I really liked about this [show] is that we get to flesh that out a little bit more. We get to see what that’s like for her in this position and the path she’s choosing as a sort of ronin, just this warrior on her own. And I really loved that we get to rekindle some of these relationships that she’s had from her past.”
Now let’s hope the broader fanbase can still relate if they haven’t seen “The Clone Wars” or “Star Wars” Rebels,” which could be the main challenge. Regardless,
“Ahsoka” premieres August 23 on Disney+. Watch the new teaser below.