After years of animated appearances across Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels (voiced by Ashley Eckstein), Ahsoka Tano finally made her live-action debut in 2020 in The Mandalorian episode “The Child,” played by Rosario Dawson. Dawson’s Ahsoka has since resurfaced in The Book of Boba Fett’s “The Return of the Mandalorian,” and she’s next set to lead her own live-action series for Disney+. Well, Ahsoka has finally begun filming, and this occasion was celebrated with a behind-the-scenes that pic that simply has be glad it’s not on Tatooine.
We’ve spent a lot of time on Tatooine in the Star Wars movies and TV shows, and following the desert planet being The Book of Boba Fett’s primary location, Star Wars fans with a Disney+ subscription are heading back there in a few weeks for Obi-Wan Kenobi. So it’s nice to know that Ahsoka is rolling cameras without a grain of sand in sight (though don't discount the possibility we could go to Tatooine in this show eventually). Instead, we get a more traditional approach to commemorating the start of principal photography, as you’ll see in the photo below from the Star Wars Instagram page:
We’ve known Ahsoka is on the way since December 2020, just a few weeks after Rosario Dawson debuted as the character since The Mandalorian. But it takes time putting a show together, and following a lengthy preproduction phase, Ahsoka is now shooting. For those of you wondering why a cowboy hat hanging off that chair, that almost certainly belongs to Dave Filoni, who co-created Ahsoka Tano with George Lucas and can be frequently seen rocking such headwear. Filoni also developed the Ahsoka series with Jon Favreau, and in addition to writing some, if not all of its episodes, the above picture indicates he’s also the directing the premiere episode. Filoni has prior live-action helming experience from two episodes of The Mandalorian and one episode of The Book of Boba Fett.
Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka Tano is running around five years after the events of Return of the Jedi, and towards the end of “The Child,” we learned she was looking for Grand Admiral Thrawn This ties into the Star Wars Rebels series finale, as following the Battle of Endor, Ahsoka and Sabine Wren set off to find Ezra Bridger, who was last seen pre-A New Hope being taken away with Thrawn by the Purrgil to parts unknown. There was no mention of Ashoka’s quest in her The Book of Boba Fett appearance, but she advised Luke Skywalker to follow his instincts on figuring out what to do with Grogu and his ambivalence towards his Jedi training.
Outside of Ahsoka Tano being determined to find Grand Admiral Thrawn, we don’t have any specific details on where the Ahsoka series’ story will take viewers. However, the character will be accompanied by a few familiar faces, because not only will Natasha Liu Bordizzo appear as Sabine Wren, Hayden Christensen will be back as Anakin Skywalker following his time as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi. That said, it hasn’t been clarified yet if Anakin will be seen in flashbacks or if he’ll appear as a Force ghost in the “present day” storyline. Ahsoka’s cast also includes Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno and Ray Stevenson, the latter of whom previously played Gar Saxon on Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels.
Ahsoka doesn’t have a release date set yet, but we’ll pass along that information and other updates on the show’s progress down the line. In addition to Obi-Wan Kenobi premiering on May 27, Star Wars fans can look forward to both Andor and Star Wars: The Bad Batch Season 2 arriving on Disney+ sometime later this year.
