For Dave Filoni, who co-created Ahsoka Tano with George Lucas, the character's live-action series has been years in the making.
Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Padawan first appeared in 2008's animated Star War: The Clone Wars film before co-starring in the Clone Wars TV show. She later returned for the animated Star Wars Rebels -- a series set 14 years after the Star Wars prequel movie trilogy -- before making her live-action debut in The Mandalorian Season 2, with Rosario Dawson bringing the Force-wielding warrior to life. Filoni is now scripting an Ahsoka spinoff show that, like The Mandalorian, takes place five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, telling Empire, "It’s thrilling, I gotta tell you."
Filoni, who's also executive producing Ahsoka, went on to confirm that he "thought of this adventure for Ahsoka for a long time" and talked about the ways its story has evolved post-Mandalorian. "Years ago, I never would have imagined that it was sprung from a branch of a tree that had anything to do with a guy [like] Din Djarin, or a child that looks like Yoda," said Filoni, calling it a "great lesson" for himself on the ways other creatives, like The Mandalorian creator Jon Favreau, can "help lend such dimension and depth to what you’re doing.”
In the year (or so) since Lucasfilm announced the Ahsoka series at Disney's Investors Day event in December 2020, more details have emerged, suggesting the show will basically serve as a sequel to Rebels. The animated series' final episode, which aired in 2018, ended with Ahsoka and her fellow Rebel, the Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, setting out to find their comrade Ezra Bridger, a Jedi in training who was last seen being pulled into hyperspace with Grand Admiral Thrawn and his Imperial fleet by a pack of purrgil during the finale's climax.
The Mandalorian Season 2 confirmed Ahsoka is still hunting Thrawn by the time her spinoff show picks up. Ahsoka has since cast Natasha Liu Bordizzo to portray the live-action Sabine, with Mena Massoud (2019's Aladdin) and Lars Mikkelsen (who voiced Thrawn on Rebels) rumored to be playing Ezra and Thrawn. What's more, the series promises to bring some emotional closure to its namesake's tumultuous relationship with her Jedi mentor, now that Hayden Christensen is reportedly onboard to reprise his role as Anakin/Darth Vader.
Ahsoka has yet to receive a release date but looks to begin filming by the first quarter of 2022.
Source: Empire