The next live-action Star Wars show will be here soon. The last time we were in this world was just earlier this year, with Season 3 of The Mandalorian, which featured space pirates and timeline questions.
Soon, fans will be back in this same spot on the timeline – between Return of the Jedi and The Force Awakens – when the live-action Ahsoka show hits Disney+ late this summer. The first trailer for the show starring Rosario Dawson as our titular character dropped in April, but the good folks at Disney and Lucasfilm gave us a new teaser on Wednesday, which just happens to be showrunner Dave Filoni’s birthday. It’s online now and a TV spot promoting the show will also air during the NBA Finals between the Denver Nuggets and Miami Heat.
Filoni, of course, is the creator behind the Star Wars animated shows Clone Wars and Rebels where fans were first introduced to Ahsoka. She made her live-action debut in Season 2 of The Mandalorian and also briefly appeared in The Book of Boba Fett.
Here’s what we learned from the new footage.
We have a release date.
Ahsoka will hit Disney+ on August 23. Mark your calendars, y’all. That’s a Wednesday.
On August 23, #Ahsoka starts streaming only on @DisneyPlus pic.twitter.com/OdwgYBJWdo
— Star Wars (@starwars) June 7, 2023
IMDB says that the series will be eight episodes. What we don’t know quite yet is if we’re getting one episode per week, or how long those episodes will be. Back in April, Filoni said episodes of Ahsoka “maybe on average a little longer” than episodes of The Mandalorian.
That sure looks a lot like Ezra’s lightsaber.
There’s a moment in the trailer where we see Sabine Wren – played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo – holding a green lightsaber and facing off with a villain by the name of Shin Hati, who actress Ivanna Sakhno called an “intense and ambitious Force-wielder.”
New look at Ivanna Sakhno as Shin Hati in AHSOKA pic.twitter.com/rKiiOobxm3
— Star Wars Holocron (@sw_holocron) June 7, 2023
Sakhno’s character is fresh, brand-new and interesting, but let’s pivot back to Sabine for a moment. That lightsaber looks a whole lot like the one that belonged to Ezra Bridger.
Sabine Wren with Ezra's lightsaber pic.twitter.com/ATaskwDfAF
— StarWarsOnly (@StarWars0nly) June 7, 2023
Fans of Rebels know that this isn’t the first time Sabine has wielded a weapon like this. She’s a Mandalorian and was once the owner of the Darksaber after finding it in Maul’s lair. To then rightfully own the Darksaber, she defeated Gar Saxon by using Ezra’s lightsaber.
If you’re wondering why she has Ezra’s lightsaber now though, it’s because he left it with Chopper before going to confront Thrawn in the finale of Rebels, which – spoiler alert – ended with the duo being carried off by, uh, space whales of sorts.
And now, Sabine carries the lightsaber with her as she and Ahsoka search for Ezra and Thrawn.
“She feels an obligation to him,” Bordizzo told Empire, talking about Sabine’s search for Ezra. “She’s just focused on the promise she made to him to find him.”
Bordizzo was pretty amped to use a lightsaber on-screen too.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo reacts to Sabine wielding Ezra's lightsaber in #Ahsoka. pic.twitter.com/Fv2nfE0enF
— Rotten Tomatoes (@RottenTomatoes) June 7, 2023
The gang is mostly all here, including Thrawn.
We get shots in this teaser of Chopper, Hera Syndulla, and Mon Mothma, played once again by the great Genevieve O’Reilly. Ezra also shows up as a hologram, and we get a glimpse of the back of Grand Admiral Thrawn’s head.
The only living member of the Ghost Crew from Rebels that we haven’t seen in any trailers so far is Zeb, the furry, purple, gruff but lovable Stormtrooper destroyer. However, fans can assume that he’ll appear in Ahsoka, considering he had a small cameo in Season 3 of The Mandalorian where he was at a bar with some New Republic Rangers. This confirms that he’s still active in fighting on behalf of the New Republic.
What’s unclear is if we’ll see live-action Captain Rex, Ahsoka’s buddy from the Clone Wars. Rumors have flown around the internet, but nothing official has been confirmed.
Do you think Rex will show up in Ahsoka?
credit: tag below if you know the creators account #Ahsoka #StarWars pic.twitter.com/cYFegMT4sU
— ComixEu (@Comix_EU) June 2, 2023
