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Ahsoka, also known as Star Wars: Ahsoka, is an American space fantasy television series created by Dave Filoni for the streaming service Disney+. It is part of the Star Wars franchise and a spin-off from The Mandalorian, taking place in the same timeframe as that series and its other interconnected spin-offs after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). Ahsoka follows former Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano and her allies as they fight the remnants of the Galactic Empire during the time of the fledgling New Republic.
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Also known as | Star Wars: Ahsoka |
Genre | |
Created by | Dave Filoni |
Based on | Star Wars by George Lucas |
Showrunner | Dave Filoni |
Written by | Dave Filoni |
Starring | |
Composer | Kevin Kiner |
Country of origin | United States |
Original language | English |
No. of seasons | 1 |
No. of episodes | 8 |
Production | |
Executive producers |
|
Producer | John Bartnicki |
Production location | Los Angeles, California |
Cinematography | |
Editors | |
Running time | 37–57 minutes |
Production companies | |
Original release | |
Network | Disney+ |
Release | August 22, 2023 – present |
Related | |
Rosario Dawson stars as the title character, reprising her role from The Mandalorian. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O'Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ariana Greenblatt, Lars Mikkelsen, and Anthony Daniels also star. Ahsoka Tano was co-created by Filoni for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars. Dawson was cast to bring her into live-action for the second season of The Mandalorian, and a spin-off series with Dawson reprising her role and Filoni set as showrunner was announced by Lucasfilm in December 2020. It serves as a continuation of the animated series Star Wars Rebels. In addition to Filoni, Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson returned from The Mandalorian as executive producers and were joined by Carrie Beck.
Ahsoka premiered on August 22, 2023, with the first two episodes of the first season. The other six episodes were released through October 3. The season received high viewership, generally positive reviews from critics, and several accolades including a Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award. A second season was confirmed in January 2024
After the fall of the Galactic Empire in the film Return of the Jedi (1983), former Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano joins with her own former apprentice, Sabine Wren, and other characters from the animated series Star Wars Rebels to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn—who is stranded in another galaxy—from returning and uniting the remnants of the Empire against the fledgling New Republic. The first season ends with Thrawn returning from the other galaxy, leaving Ahsoka and Sabine stranded there.[3][4]
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 1 | "Part One: Master and Apprentice" | Dave Filoni | Dave Filoni | August 22, 2023 |
2 | 2 | "Part Two: Toil and Trouble" | Steph Green | Dave Filoni | August 22, 2023 |
3 | 3 | "Part Three: Time to Fly" | Steph Green | Dave Filoni | August 29, 2023 |
4 | 4 | "Part Four: Fallen Jedi" | Peter Ramsey | Dave Filoni | September 5, 2023 |
5 | 5 | "Part Five: Shadow Warrior" | Dave Filoni | Dave Filoni | September 12, 2023 |
6 | 6 | "Part Six: Far, Far Away" | Jennifer Getzinger | Dave Filoni | September 19, 2023 |
7 | 7 | "Part Seven: Dreams and Madness" | Geeta Vasant Patel | Dave Filoni | September 26, 2023 |
8 | 8 | "Part Eight: The Jedi, the Witch, and the Warlord" | Rick Famuyiwa | Dave Filoni | October 3, 2023 |
No. overall | No. in season | Title | Directed by | Written by | Original release date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 1 | TBA | TBA | TBA | TBA |
Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February 2020 that spin-offs of the live-action Star Wars television series The Mandalorian were being considered, and there was potential to add characters to the series to then give them their own series.[52] A month later, Rosario Dawson was cast as Ahsoka Tano for the second season of The Mandalorian,[7] appearing in "Chapter 13: The Jedi" which was written and directed by executive producer Dave Filoni.[53] Filoni co-created Ahsoka with Star Wars creator George Lucas for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, and later included her in his follow-up animated series Star Wars Rebels.[7] In December 2020, Lucasfilm announced several spin-off series from The Mandalorian including The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka,[5][54][55] also known as Star Wars: Ahsoka.[15] The new series were set in the same trimeframe as The Mandalorian—during the 30 years between the films Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and were planned to culminate in a "climactic story event".[56][57] They were being concurrently developed by The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau and Filoni,[56] with Filoni creating, writing, and serving as lead producer and showrunner on Ahsoka.[58][59] Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, Carrie Beck, and Colin Wilson were also executive producers.[60]
Ahsoka was initially reported to be a miniseries,[15] but Disney was not listing it as such by February 2023.[61] That April, when the series was revealed to have eight episodes,[62] Filoni was announced to be making a film that would serve as a culmination of the interconnected stories of The Mandalorian and its spin-offs.[63][64] In November, Filoni revealed that he was now chief creative officer at Lucasfilm and would be directly involved in the planning of future films and series. He was considering a second season of the series at that point,[65] and Lucasfilm officially announced that Filoni was developing the season in January 2024,[66] to be made before his planned film.[67]
At the end of Rebels, protagonist Ezra Bridger is taken to an unknown location with antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn. In an epilogue, Ahsoka joins Sabine Wren to search for Ezra,[7] setting-up a future story that Filoni wanted to tell. He described bringing Ahsoka and Sabine together as "a unification of Clone Wars and Rebels".[68][69] Following speculation and reports about the series,[15][70] Filoni confirmed that Ahsoka would be continuing the story he established in the epilogue of Rebels,[9] and would explore aspects of Ahsoka from The Clone Wars and Rebels that he had not been able to so far.[1] When asked if the series was effectively a fifth season of Rebels, Filoni said that was "one way of looking at it" but he also saw all of his Star Wars projects as one larger story.[3] Ahsoka takes on Sabine as her Padawan learner in the series,[1] something Filoni had been planning for the characters since the end of Rebels.[8] The relationships between masters and apprentices became a key theme throughout the first season,[18]: 2–3 which also explores Ahsoka's relationship with her former master Anakin Skywalker.[1]
Rosario Dawson was confirmed to be reprising her role as Ahsoka Tano from The Mandalorian with the series' announcement in December 2020;[5] Ahsoka was voiced in the animated series by Ashley Eckstein.[7] In October 2021, Hayden Christensen was set to reprise his role as Anakin from the Star Wars films,[31] while Natasha Liu Bordizzo was cast as Sabine a month later, replacing Tiya Sircar who voiced the character in Rebels.[15] Ivanna Sakhno was also cast in November.[27] Mary Elizabeth Winstead was added to the cast in January 2022,[71] and Ray Stevenson joined the next month. Stevenson previously voiced Gar Saxon in Rebels and The Clone Wars.[72] In September, Eman Esfandi was cast as Ezra, who was voiced by Taylor Gray in Rebels.[29]
At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, Winstead was revealed to be portraying Rebels character Hera Syndulla,[23] replacing voice actress Vanessa Marshall;[73] Sakhno and Stevenson were revealed to be playing new antagonists Shin Hati and Baylan Skoll, respectively;[23] and several actors were announced to be reprising their roles from previous Star Wars projects, including Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth from The Mandalorian, Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma from the Star Wars films and the series Andor, David Tennant as the droid Huyang from The Clone Wars, and Lars Mikkelsen as Thrawn from Rebels.[20] Additionally, the third episode of the first season introduces Evan Whitten as Jacen Syndulla, Hera's son;[30] Ariana Greenblatt plays a young Ahsoka for flashbacks to the Clone Wars in the fifth episode;[13] and Anthony Daniels reprises his Star Wars film and television role as the droid C-3PO in the seventh episode.[36]
The design leads from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett returned for Ahsoka, including production designers Andrew L. Jones and Doug Chiang,[74] costume designer Shawna Trpcic,[75] hair designer Maria Sandoval,[19] and prop master Josh Roth.[76] Trpcic died soon after the first season was released.[75] Legacy Effects also returned to create puppets and animatronics.[77] The first season begins with an opening crawl similar to the ones that are reserved for the beginning of the main Star Wars films. The crawl for Ahsoka is differentiated from the films by red text and simpler formatting.[78] As with the previous live-action Star Wars series, lightsaber hilts were connected to glowing tubes to create on-set interactive lighting. Filoni felt some of the previous series had taken the lightsaber brightness too far and wanted the light levels in Ahsoka to be closer to those in the Star Wars films.[79] The technology for hiding batteries for the lighting in the lightsaber hilts was improved from The Mandalorian.[76]
The series is produced with visual effects studio Industrial Light & Magic's StageCraft virtual production technology, which was developed for The Mandalorian. This involves filming on a "volume" set surrounded by a circular LED video wall that digital backgrounds can be displayed on in real-time.[80] Traditional blue screen stages as well as outdoor locations are also used for some scenes.[81] The directors and cinematographers spent eight months creating and editing previsualizations of each episode using virtual reality cameras and headsets ahead of filming.[79][81] Principal photography for the first season began on May 9, 2022,[82] at Manhattan Beach Studios in Los Angeles, California,[80] under the working title Stormcrow which is a reference to Gandalf the Grey from The Lord of the Rings.[83][84] Filming lasted six months and wrapped in October 2022.[85][86]
Filming for the second season is expected to begin in 2025.[87]
At Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023, Kevin Kiner was revealed to be composing the score for Ahsoka after previously doing so for the animated series The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Bad Batch, and Tales of the Jedi.[88] As with the animated series, Kiner collaborated with his children Sean and Deana on the score.[89] It combines influences from Japanese cinema, which the Kiners started leaning into for Ahsoka in Tales of the Jedi, with the more traditional sound of Star Wars film composer John Williams.[90] In addition to Kevin's Ahsoka theme from The Clone Wars, the score includes returning themes for the main Rebels characters,[89] and some of Williams's themes from the films for key scenes.[90] Walt Disney Records released two soundtrack albums featuring the first season's score: the first volume was released on September 15 and the second on October 6.[91][92]
Ahsoka premiered on Disney+ on August 22, 2023, with its first two episodes. Subsequent episodes were released weekly until October 3.[93][94]
Disney and Lucasfilm announced that the first episode had 14 million views in its first five days and was the most watched title on Disney+ that week. Disney defined views as total stream time divided by runtime.[95] Whip Media, who track viewership data for the 25 million worldwide users of their TV Time app, ranked Ahsoka as the highest or second-highest original streaming series each week of the first season's release.[96] Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, placed Ahsoka second on its list of original series for the first season's premiere and finale weeks. The other weeks were also in the top 10.[97]
Season | Rotten Tomatoes | Metacritic |
---|---|---|
1 | 86% (266 reviews)[98] | 68 (25 reviews)[99] |
2 | X | X |
The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported that 86% of 266 critics gave the first season a positive review, with an average rating of 7.40 out of 10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by Rosario Dawson's strong performance in the title role and a solid story that balances new and old elements of the Star Wars saga, Ahsoka is a must-watch for fans of the franchise."[98] Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the season a score of 68 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.[99] Critics commonly felt that the season was a good entry in the franchise for existing Star Wars fans. The performances of Dawson and Stevenson received praise, but other performances were criticized as being "stiff" and the season's slow pacing also received criticism.[100][101][102]
The first season was nominated for six Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards (winning one),[103][104] an American Cinema Editors Award,[105] a Costume Designers Guild Award (which it won),[106] five Critics' Choice Super Awards,[107] two Make-Up Artists and Hair Stylists Guild Awards,[108] two People's Choice Awards,[109] a Screen Actors Guild Award,[110] and a Visual Effects Society Award,[111] among others.
In February 2024, Marvel Comics announced an eight-issue comic book miniseries titled Star Wars: Ahsoka which adapts the first season of the series. Written by Rodney Barnes with art by Steven Cummings and Georges Jeanty, the miniseries was set to debut in July.[112]
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