For a franchise like Star Wars that spans storytelling across decades, its offerings complement each other’s narrative. Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau recently spoke on the Entertainment Weekly podcast and addressed whether Ahsoka is a direct continuation of Star Wars: Rebels.
“That’s an interesting question, 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. For me, when I’m telling those stories, I don’t limit things like, ‘Oh, well, I did it in animation, so I would do it differently in live action.’” explained Filoni.
He continued, “There’s just the story that it is, and I was telling it in one medium. Rebels is a different style than The Clone Wars. Even visually, that changed the way I could execute certain things in Rebels. The story kind of evolved since I worked on Rebels. Working with [Jon Favreau] and setting things down in The Mandalorian created an opportunity to see: How does Ahsoka work as a character in live-action?”
Given that the upcoming series ensemble includes Rebels faces like Ahsoka, Ezra, Sabine, Hera, Chopper, and Thrawn, it’s workable if the former will continue the latter. But since Ahsoka is the highlight, Filoni talked about Rosario Dawson’s casting for the first time.
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“With the head tails and the makeup, what does that look like? Can a performer bring that to life in a way that is meaningful? I was very fortunate, the whole thing kind of came together for me with Rosario when we talked with her and when she put on the costume and became Ahsoka. I was like, you know, this is going to work. It really kind of was as simple as that.” he narrated.
Filoni added, “It goes back to a quote that Kathleen Kennedy gave me when I was really going over the casting of Ahsoka. I said, ‘How do you know when it’s the right person?’ And she just looked at me and said, ‘Dave, you just know.’ I’m in a very privileged position to have a mentor like her advising me and just giving the knowledge that you need to make the choices creatively that you end up doing. And she was right. I just knew when it was Rosario, and that kind of brought Ahsoka together for me, and off we ran.”
Aside from the anticipated performance of Dawson, Ahsoka's trailer also promises an exciting portrayal from Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, and a little hint of Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger.
Ahsoka is set to premiere in August on Disney+.
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