Ahsoka: release date rumours, cast, plot and news on Star Wars series

By Huw Fullerton

Published: Saturday, 20 November 2021 at 12:00 am

Star Wars fans were thrilled to see fan favourite character Ahsoka Tano jump boldly into live-action with The Mandalorian season two, where she was portrayed by Daredevil alum Rosario Dawson.

The good news is there’s plenty more of her to come as Disney later announced that the character would headline her very own solo series, which will expand on her ongoing battle with the sinister Admiral Thrawn.

The iconic baddie has hounded the heroes of the Star Wars universe for decades, pre-dating Disney’s acquisition of the franchise, but unlike many other characters he was re-integrated into the lore by Dave Filoni (in Rebels).

There’s no word yet on who will portray the blue meanie in live-action, with some fans suggesting Benedict Cumberbatch for the role – but alas, he declined firmly in conversation with Collider earlier this year.

“That’s a straight no from me, right now,” he said. “There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that.”

It has also been confirmed that Anakin Skywalker will feature in the Ahsoka series, likely in flashback or as a force ghost given its place in the timeline, with Hayden Christensen reprising his prequels role (he’s a busy guy at the moment, having also bagged a spot in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series).

Meanwhile, Lucasfilm is bring another animated character – Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren – into live-action with the Ahsoka series.

Read on for more information on Disney Plus original series Ahsoka.

Ahsoka Disney+ release date

There was no release date given for the Ahsoka TV series at the point of its initial announcement at Disney’s 2020 investor call, suggesting that we could be in for a bit of a wait before we see what Anakin Skywalker’s former padawan did next.

With several Star Wars projects coming down the pipeline over the coming months, RadioTimes.com predicts we won’t be seeing Ahsoka until late 2022 or early 2023.

Keep checking back for more updates on the Ahsoka series as they come in.

Ahsoka cast

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Disney

Rosario Dawson will be back as Ahsoka for this new series, taking over from Ashley Eckstein who portrayed the role vocally for a number of years in The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels (as well as a cameo in 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker).

In October 2021, it was announced that Hayden Christensen would be joining her, reprising the role of Ahsoka’s mentor Anakin Skywalker, who is likely to appear either in flashback or as a force ghost.

Then, in November 2021, it was confirmed that Natasha Liu Bordizzo (The Society) had been cast as a lead in the series, plaing Sabine Wren from the Star Wars Rebels animated series.

Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni previously gave fans a hint that Mandalorian graffiti artist Sabine would be joining Ahsoka on her travels.

You see, in a recent interview Filoni hinted that a Rebels epilogue scene – which saw Ahsoka pick up Sabine to follow a new lead about Thrawn and Ezra – may have actually taken place after Ahsoka’s Mandalorian appearance, suggesting the duo’s search could be chronicled in the live-action series.

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Notably, Disney have also revealed that Ahsoka will cross over with fellow newly-announced series Rangers of the New Republic, which is believed to follow X-Wing pilots patrolling the galaxy to try and put down Imperial remnants.

In the Star Wars Rebels epilogue, Ahsoka was also flanked by two X-Wings, which could hint further at this crossover – and given this, it seems likely that the key cast of this second Disney+ series (who also remain unknown) will play a key part in Ahsoka.

And have we really seen the last team-up between Ahsoka and Pedro Pascal’s Mandalorian? Given that both series are explicitly set at the same time, we doubt it.

Ahsoka plot

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While the Disney announcement gave little to no details about Ahsoka’s story beyond the fact that it’s set in the same time period as The Mandalorian, we may have been given some clues already in The Mandalorian season two.

In the second season’s fifth episode we saw Ahsoka hunting for Grand Admiral Thrawn, the Star Wars Rebels villain who disappeared with one of the series main heroes (Jedi-in-training Ezra Bridger) in the Rebels finale.

It seems fair to assume that this tease was included for a reason, and it could be that Ahsoka will see Dawson’s hero hunting down Thrawn (and trying to save Ezra) over a number of episodes.

And this may also give us a clue about the characters involved in this new series.

Who is Ahsoka Tano?

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Created by Dave Filoni for The Clone Wars animated movie and subsequent TV series (with Filoni serving as the creator and showrunner of the Ahsoka Disney+ series), Ahsoka Tano comes from a species called the Togruta and enters the Star Wars universe as the young apprentice of Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker.

Over the course of the Clone Wars Ahsoka had a variety of adventures with Anakin and Obi-Wan and grew into a capable warrior, though ended up leaving the Jedi Order after being framed for a number of murders (even after being cleared, she lost faith with the Jedi Council for the mistake).

Later, she escaped the end of the Jedi during Order 66 and fought back against the Empire from the fringes, even meeting her old master (as Darth Vader) in battle during the course of Star Wars Rebels.

Now, it appears she’s on a new quest righting wrongs and looking for old friends. And woe betide any villains who get in her way.

Is there a trailer for Ahsoka?

Not so far – it’s very early days – though Disney did release a first look at the logo for the series along with a brief description of its content.

Ahsoka, a new Original Series, starring @RosarioDawson and set within the timeline of @TheMandalorian, is coming to @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/jD8byvNvDP

— Star Wars (@starwars) December 10, 2020