After two years, the second season of Ahsoka is finally on the way — but creator Dave Filoni has wisely been using that time to make the series stronger than ever. Ahsoka Season 1 was hindered by flaws that seemed preventable: not only was its story slow and uneventful, but it struggled to give its ensemble cast — most of them fan favorites from the animated Rebels — equal time in the spotlight. The series was mostly focused on the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), who’d been banished to a neighboring universe in the final season of Rebels. But the effort of bringing this villain from the animated corner of Star Wars and into live-action left a handful of other characters, like Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Hera Syndulla, on the sidelines.
Like Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), Hera was a fan favorite in Rebels. An accomplished pilot and the leader of her own sect of the Rebel Alliance, the character was often at the center of the action. Ahsoka, meanwhile, takes place long after the Rebels have defeated the Empire, leaving Hera struggling to find her place in the new regime. Fortunately, that’s all set to change in Season 2. With Ahsoka and Sabine stranded in that far-off universe, and Thrawn poised to restart the battle between the Empire and the New Republic, Hera might just be the one stepping up to lead Republic forces.
