Ahsoka Tano Was Nearly In 'Attack Of The Clones', According To Dave Filoni

Fan favorite Star Wars character Ahsoka Tano will soon appear in live-action for the first time in The Mandalorian season 2. But in a recent interview, writer/producer Dave Filoni revealed that the character's very first appearance almost happened in live-action – and several years earlier than anyone expected.

It turns out Ahsoka nearly appeared in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones instead of debuting in Star Wars: The Clone Wars. 

Over at Vanity Fair, there's a full-fledged oral history about Ahsoka's creation. She first appeared to audiences in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie in 2008, but Filoni explained that they nearly retconned Ahsoka's identity into being one and the same with a young alien who appeared on screen during 2002's Star Wars: Attack of the Clones:

"We called her Ashla in the beginning. That was 2005, and that worked on several levels for me. I think it was the name given to one of the [young Jedis Yoda was training] in Attack of the Clones. There was a little Togruta girl. We kicked around the idea that maybe that was Ahsoka but then we thought the age didn't really work out for it to be the same character. She was too young in the film."

The Star Wars databank says that in the photo below of the "Bear Clan" from Attack of the Clones, the girl on the far left's name is "Ahsla," which may simply be a typo on their part. In any case, that's the character they were thinking about retconning into being Ahsoka:

It's fascinating to consider how the Star Wars timeline may have been altered if George Lucas, Filoni, and their storytelling teams had stuck to their guns and pressed ahead with that original idea. Ahsoka has been a pivotal part of Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and /Film exclusively revealed that the character will be played by Rosario Dawson in The Mandalorian season 2 when that show returns to Disney+ this fall. Would she have had a similar impact if her age had been different?