Ahsoka Tano holds a unique place in Star Wars canon as a Jedi-trained hero who made it through the prequel era, Order 66, years of rebellion, a duel with Darth Vader, and the entire original trilogy era without being killed for good. She is also one of the characters in the entire franchise with the most screentime thanks to her role on The Clone Wars, but there is one big question that has gone unanswered on the small screen: what exactly happened between Ahsoka's dramatic departure at the end of Clone Wars' Season 5 finale and her reappearance in Star Wars Rebels Season 1?
Well, until very, very recently, it felt unlikely that Star Wars would ever answer that question on screen. Some blanks in Ahsoka's backstory were filled in by a novel, and executive producer Dave Filoni has teased over the years some of what would have happened had Clone Wars not been cancelled. Even Rebels is over, meaning that Ahsoka's chance to tell her story or have her story revealed via the world between worlds is gone.
The good news is that Dave Filoni announced the exciting (and surprising, by this point) revival of The Clone Wars, five years after what was previously considered the series finale. At the same San Diego Comic-Con panel where he announced the return of Clone Wars, he said this about a major Ahsoka story that he intended to tell in the series before it got the axe:
The Siege of Mandalore, which was a very big arc for us, which involved Ahsoka teaming up with Bo-Katan and going to Mandalore. These were from the story meeting about that. We were writing and I was trying to figure this out, we were going to have this big battle. What would it be like to throw those two characters together? We would talk about it. These still were the early days... The shattering of the city buildings.
Now, Dave Filoni did not confirm at the Comic-Con panel celebrating The Clone Wars' tenth anniversary that the revival would tackle the Siege of Mandalore, but we do know that the new episodes of the series will continue arcs introduced in the show during its original run. As fans will remember, the show was fast-approaching the timeline of Revenge of the Sith, so there were a number of loose ends that needed tying off for the show to be truly satisfying. Clone Wars has received an order for twelve new episodes, which means there's time for two or three arcs. Wouldn't it make sense for the Siege of Mandalore to be one of those arcs?
Admittedly, none of the arcs exactly ended with characters on the way to a besieged Mandalore, but Ahsoka was bound to return to the action eventually, and the heroes did leave Mandalore with a lot of work to be done by Bo-Katan and Co. It would make sense for the new episodes to go back to Mandalore. In fact, a Clones Wars-era trip back to Mandalore could even fill in some of Star Wars Rebels' Sabine's family backstory. What's not to love about a Siege of Mandalore (for non-Mandalorians)?
There's also the fact that Maul alluded to a past encounter with Ahsoka when he turned up on Rebels in the Season 2 finale, and he referenced an event that didn't happen in the 6 seasons of Clone Wars. By answering the Ahsoka question, The Clone Wars could fill in a Rebels blank and perhaps deliver more of Sam Witwer's crazed performance as Maul. Finally, the clip released to celebrate the new season of The Clone Wars revealed Ahsoka contacting Anakin and Obi-Wan via hologram with somebody in Mandalorian armor by her side, as she likely would have if she was facing all but impossible odds to save a besieged Mandalore.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for the latest in Star Wars and San Diego Comic-Con news. The Clone Wars is currently available streaming on Netflix, which could help you pass the time while waiting for the new batch of episodes on Disney's streaming service. Our 2018 Netflix guide can point you toward some alternate streaming option for sooner rather than later, and our summer TV schedule can take you in some other directions if streaming isn't always your style.
