Will Ahsoka Take The Place Of Star Wars Rebels Season 5?
We have seen plenty of "Star Wars" characters from across the canon (including the old Expanded Universe, aka. Star Wars Legends) make the transition from one medium to another, from Thrawn in books to General Grievous and Saw Guerrera starting out in animation. That being said, the past few years have seen many an animated character make the transition to live-action in "Star Wars" TV shows on Disney+ — mostly ones Dave Filoni was involved in. Characters like Cad Bane appeared in "The Book of Boba Fett," while both Bo-Katan Kryze and Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios have shown up on "The Mandalorian."
This last part is important, as Filoni (who has become probably the biggest creative voice in "Star Wars "at the moment) seems to be continuing the stories he started in animation in live-action. That takes on a new level with Ahsoka Tano, the character Filoni helped create on her way to becoming one of the most beloved characters in the franchise.
After a couple of cool cameos in "The Mandalorian" and "The Book of Boba Fett," Ahsoka (who is played by Rosario Dawson in live-action) is finally headlining her own "Star Wars" show. Known as simply "Ahsoka," Filoni's series will not only build up to what looks to be a re-imagining of the Legends storyline "Heir to the Empire," but will also continue some dangling threads from "Star Wars Rebels." This poses the question: Given how much "Ahsoka" seems to require knowledge of "Rebels," should it merely be considered "Rebels" season 5?
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Filoni chimed in, saying, "I suppose that's one way of looking at it, because of the epilogue that I did in 'Rebels.' Definitely all signs are indicating that there's a continuation."
Is canon important?
Likewise, in an interview with Total FIlm (via IGN), Dawson added, "I'm pretty sure Dave said that this is basically like the fifth season of 'Rebels.' So it felt nice to feel that sort of continuation with these people she's got such a rich history with. You can see that with her mission that she has, going after Thrawn, and believing that he's still alive, and holding Ezra in her heart because they have a really beautiful, long history as well."
Is this a good thing, though? The problem with a character like Ahsoka is that there is 15 years' worth of stories about the character, and not everyone who will watch "Ahsoka" will be familiar with "The Clone Wars" and "Rebels" and their combined 200+ episodes of TV. You can't force people to watch all of that, but you also just can't ignore that backstory either. Do you then just recap the important stuff in the show itself? That would make it feel like a waste of time if you already knew the story.
We saw how this worked, or didn't work, in "The Mandalorian" with Bo-Katan. The show all but ignored Bo-Katan's story in "The Clone Wars," opting instead to do a very, very condensed and safe version that ignores the character's messy history. This made it easy for newcomers to think of her as just an important character without having to know more. This simplification also meant losing the context that made Bo-Katan so complex, and completely erasing her sister, Satine, which should have been huge for the themes and story of the season (given she tried to make Mandalore a pacifist planet and struggled with the Mandalorian history of inner conflict and violence).
The future of Star Wars
We know "Ahsoka" will at least pay off the final scene of "Rebels" and deal with the search for Ezra as well as the coming of Thrawn. That is certainly enough to consider the show a new season of "Rebels," considering the rest of the crew of the Ghost from "Rebels" will also appear in the series, including Hera, Sabine, Chopper, and, most likely, Zeb (not to mention the rumors of their ally Captain Rex popping up).
The big problem "Ahsoka" needs to overcome is the balance of telling a new story — one that apparently involves a fallen Jedi played by the late Ray Stevenson — while also continuing the story of "Rebels" and setting up Filoni's new "Star Wars" movie (the project that seems to be directly adapting "Heir to the Empire"). Granted, the middle entry in a trilogy is often the best (see: "Spider-Man 2," "The Two Towers," "The Empire Strikes Back"), so maybe "Ahsoka" will figure out a way to satisfyingly pay off older stories while at the same time telling a compelling story on its own and building up to the next exciting chapter.
"Ahsoka" begins streaming August 23, 2023, on Disney+.