Last week, Star Wars fans were delighted to learn that Rosario Dawson was cast to play Ahsoka Tano in season 2 of The Mandalorian. It was also confirmed that Dawson would not be a series regular on the show which raises the question on what role she will be playing in moving the story forward.
In case you aren’t familiar with the character, Ahsoka debuted in Star Wars: The Clone Wars in 2008. The animated film then launched a TV series that ran for six seasons on Cartoon Network. And the seventh and final season just debuted on Disney+. Ashley Eckstein provides the voice of Ahsoka who is the former Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker. Her master’s turn to the Dark Side set off an equally complex journey for the character that turned her into a Star Wars icon favorite. She also made an appearance in Rebels where she aided the crew of the Ghost and even faced off against her former master, Darth Vader. Her whereabouts since the end of Rebels and up to The Mandalorian are yet to be seen.
While we don’t know how big of a role Ahsoka will play in The Mandalorian, many fans are speculating that this could be a setup for an Ahsoka Tano spinoff series.
The Hollywood Reporter even went into depth of the idea in a recent article which you can read here. The article states it would make sense since Tano was arguably creator Dave Filoni’s biggest character contribution to the Star Wars franchise. Filoni also wrote, directed and executive produced several episodes of season 1 of The Mandalorian and has been confirmed to direct at least one episode of season 2.
The character also fits into the plot of The Mandalorian with the appearance of the darksaber in possession of Moff Gideon and its connection to both The Clone Wars and Rebels. While Ahsoka never owned the Darksaber herself, the Mandalorian Sabine Wren, who joined Ahsoka in Rebels, once claimed it before passing it to Bo-Katan Kryze, who was said to lead the Mandalorians against the Empire.
The Ahsoka spinoff series could also be about her life in the underworld of Coruscant. George Lucas announced a live-action series back in 2005 title Star Wars: Underworld which was to be set during the timespan between the films Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV A New Hope. Over the next few years, a variety of writers were hired and over 50 scripts were written, but the series was eventually put on the back burner due to budget constraints.
There are definitely many paths to take and stories to tell of Ahsoka Tano. And given the characters popularity, it’s more than likely we’ll see more of her journey in the future.
Season 2 of The Mandalorian just wrapped filming earlier this month and is set to return to Disney+ in October 2020.