Now one of two primary creators of the New Republic era stories being told through multiple streaming series on Disney Plus ahead of a theatrical event, Dave Filoni was once the chief creative mind behind Lucasfilm’s canonical animated adventures such as Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. Through Disney Plus streaming series such as The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, Filoni has had the opportunity to shepherd the adaptation of several fan-favorite animated characters into live-action.
Of those characters, none was dearer to Filoni than Ahsoka Tano, who, played by Rosario Dawson, made her live-action debut in the second season of The Mandalorian. Now, three years later, the former Padawan of Anakin Skywalker will take center stage in her own streaming series, Ahsoka, and Filoni opened up to Empire about putting his beloved creation at the center of a series to be shared with legions of Star Wars fans, some of whom have not seen the animated adventures that fleshed out her story.
While Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels are considered canon, Filoni is acutely aware that not everyone who will be tuning into Ahsoka will be a Star Wars completist, meaning that not insignificant chunk of the audience won’t be fully familiar with the lead character’s story. According to Filoni, that presented him with a bit of a problem. “The biggest challenge was, there’s a whole bunch of audience that know her, and a whole bunch that don’t,” said Filoni. “She has one foot in the Star Wars that a lot of people know because of her connection to Anakin, and yet she’s all new and can go in her own direction, in her own way.”
As is often the case with creatives, however, Filoni found a way to reframe that challenging aspect of the character. Rather than limit Ahsoka by holding her to what little fans who haven’t seen the animated series do know about her, Filoni has chosen to see the unfamiliarity as door that opens myriad possibilities. “I think that makes her an interesting bridge between what came before and what’s really possible,” said Filoni of Ahsoka’s potential. Given that the character is likely set to play a major role in Filoni’s New Republic era film and his enduring love for her, it sounds like there may be many more stories in Ahsoka’s future.
Ahsoka debuts on Disney Plus on Aug. 31.
Source: Empire
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