Once Lucasfilm wrapped the trilogy that was launched in 2015 with J.J. Abrams’s Star Wars: The Force Awakens, fans began clamoring for the next big saga. So much of Star Wars takes place in television form nowadays, with solid series such as Andor, and disappointing series such as Obi-Wan Kenobi. We haven’t seen a new Star Wars film since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, though according to our reporting from Star Wars Celebration, all of that is about to change. Several upcoming Star Wars movies have been announced, and after the results of the Ahsoka season finale, I’m beginning to see where all of this is heading.
The period of time in the Star Wars timeline set between the original trilogy (which ended with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi) and the sequel trilogy (which began with Star Wars: The Force Awakens) seems incredibly rich for exploration. The Rebellion triumphed over the Empire, with Luke Skywalker’s help. How did The First Order come about? Why was Luke (Mark Hamill) exiled? A lot transpired. Much of it was explored in books, comics, and video games – some canon, some not. But seeds planted in the Ahsoka finale suggest a path forward into this time period, which is going to place a bright spotlight on three main characters.
Here’s who I think will be very important to the narrative for the next decade of Star Wars storytelling:
Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn
You basically can’t have Star Wars without a formidable villain, be it Darth Vader, or Emperor Palpatine. (“The dead speak!”) And Season 1 of Ahsoka spent its time setting up the return of, and eventual escape of, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), the new Big Bad for Star Wars stories. Thrawn was introduced in a popular series of Star Wars novels written by Timothy Zahn. He unites the fractured pieces of the Galactic Empire, and wages war against the New Republic leaders, including Luke Skywalker, Leia, Han Solo, and more.
Star Wars fans saw the return of Grand Admiral Thrawn in the animated Star Wars Rebels series, which concluded the storyline that Ahsoka Season 1 picked up. Near the conclusion of that show, Ezra Bridger exiled himself and Thrawn to a far off galaxy, to prevent him from taking over the New Republic. But thanks to Ashoka, Thrawn is now back on the playing field, and expects to be a major focus of either Ahsoka Season 2 or the Dave Filoni movie that Lucasfilm announced.
Eman Esfandi as Ezra Bridger
Bringing back Thrawn also meant bringing back Ezra Bridger, the very popular character who once was the beating heart of Dave Filoni’s Star Wars Rebels. And what an arc Ezra had on that show, beginning as a street urchin on the planet of Lothal who eventually trains to be a Jedi under Kanan Jarrus (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and join the Rebel Alliance.
Introduced in live action as part of the Ashoka series on Disney+, Ezra was portrayed by Eman Esfandi, who tapped perfectly into the giddy enthusiasm and brazen confidence Bridger had in Rebels. Ezra often was too full of himself, his pride and ego distracting him from the ways of The Force. That impetuousness often made Kanan angry. We saw some of that come through in Ahsoka, but mainly, Ezra appeared to have matured, and even found greater control over his powers while in exile. As Season 1 concluded, Ezra was reunited with Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), so we believe his adventures are just beginning.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren
Yes, Ahsoka Tano is Sabine Wren’s master. But there were times throughout Ahsoka when it seemed the writing was more concerned with advancing the story of Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) than it was with the actual title character. This has been the norm in the Disney+ Star Wars shows. The Mandalorian stole away The Book of Boba Fett, while Luke Skywalker and Ahsoka appeared in one of the more memorable episodes of The Mandalorian. It’s all one big galaxy.
Sabine, however, made incredible strides over the course of Ahsoka, and it seems like she’s being positioned as one of the next big Jedi masters to be in service of the New Republic. There can never be too many trained Jedi, so it was important for Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) to help rescue Ezra, but also to return and resume training Sabine. As we saw in the season finale, Sabine’s control over the Force was increasing, and I’ll bet that a chunk of Ahsoka Season 2 (if it happens) will be dedicated to Ahsoka training her padawan even more, now that they are both stranded on Peridea.
The biggest question now is, “When will we see these important characters again?” The natural answer would be Ahsoka Season 2, though nothing has been announced or confirmed yet. It seems like there is still too much story to establish before Dave Filoni’s Star Wars movie pulls together threads from The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Ahsoka. As soon as we know more about Filoni’s plan for these three actors, we will report back.
