‘Ahsoka’ Review: ‘Star Wars’ Superfans Will Find a Lot to Like in Disney+ Series

The biggest question I’ve had about Star Wars: Ahsoka, Disney+'s latest Star Wars series, is not whether Hayden Christensen will appear as Darth Vader (seems likely) or how well Star Wars Rebels characters like Hera Syndulla, Ezra Bridger or Chopper will translate to live action. No, the question is, just when the heck did Sabine Wren start training to be a Jedi?

If you haven’t watched any of the animated Star Wars shows, you might be saying “Back up a minute! Who are all these people?” And that might be one of the sticking points for Ahsoka, since it really does play like a long-lost 5th season of Rebels, the animated series that followed Ahsoka Tano, Sabine Wren and many other characters who are beloved by Star Wars devotees but are relatively obscure outside of a galaxy far, far away.

If you loved Rebels, as I did, you’ll probably be pretty satisfied. But if you haven’t seen it, some of the meaning might fly over your head. But one thing Ahsoka creator and Lucasfilm Creative Director Dave Filoni has demonstrated many times, especially with The Mandalorian, Disney+'s flagship Star Wars show on which he serves as an executive producer, is that he knows how to mix Star Wars canon into a larger story that even casual fans can enjoy. That’s mostly true here.  

Ahsoka continues the story of former Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), who was once Anakin Skywalker's Padawan and is now working to make sure the Empire doesn't rise again. The series puts the courageous, fan-favorite character front-and-center for the first time in a live-action production.

Though fans didn't immediately warm to Ahsoka when she debuted in 2008’s animated film The Clone Wars, in the intervening years she’s become one of the most iconic female characters in the Star Wars canon. Wonderfully voiced by Ashley Eckstein in animation, Ahsoka was almost like a sister to her impulsive Master Anakin. Her contentious departure from the Jedi Order helped set the stage for his fall to the Dark Side. 

She made a mostly successful jump to live action when Rosario Dawson put on the lekku. She first appeared in Season 2 of The Mandalorian and revealed that the frog-slurping terror known to fans as "Baby Yoda" was actually named Grogu. She then popped up in The Book of Boba Fett, where she counseled her former Master’s son, Luke Skywalker (a controversially de-aged Mark Hamill), in his tutelage of Grogu.

Ahsoka now finds herself on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, the iconic villain of countless Star Wars novels, who is finally making the jump to live action himself. He's played by Lars Mikkelsen, one of the few Star Wars actors to play both the animated and live-action versions of a character.

Thrawn, a blue-skinned Chiss who was a high-ranking Empire official, was defeated in the Rebels series finale by young Jedi Ezra Bridger, who, in one of the wildest moments in Star Wars history, summoned a pod of hyperspace whales that vanished them both to parts unknown. Their duel disappearance means that wherever Thrawn is, Ezra most likely is as well. While Ahsoka wants to prevent Thrawn’s return so the New Republic doesn’t fall into war again, she also wants to find her friend Ezra. And the best person to help her with her mission is Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo).

Sabine is a young Mandalorian who served on the crew of the freighter ship Ghost with Ezra and erstwhile Jedi Kanan Jarrus. Jarrus trained her with the Darksaber, a unique, ancient lightsaber passed down through generations of Mandalorians leading back to the first Mandalorian to become a Jedi. But Sabine was not a Jedi herself. So I admit I was pretty confused by where she starts in Ahsoka. The first episode treats Sabine as Ahsoka's failed protege and suggests an unseen backstory between the characters. It left me wondering if I had forgotten an important Rebels storyline in the five years the show has been off the air. 

But Star Wars has always been filled with retcons, and Sabine’s supposed Jedi training seems another in a long line of them. George Lucas loved himself a retcon, his most infamous one being Greedo shooting first. (Everyone knows Han shot first, George!) Heck, Ahsoka Tano herself began as a Lucas retcon when she was introduced as Anakin Skywalker’s heretofore unseen apprentice in the 2008 animated film The Clone Wars. And Dave Filoni continues Lucas' somewhat controversial tradition here by making Sabine’s initial Jedi training happen off-screen sometime in the many years between Ezra Bridger’s disappearance and the coda of Rebels, where Ahsoka and Sabine team up to search for Ezra. The final scene of Ahsoka Episode 2 is the final scene of Rebels recreated almost shot-for-shot.

Whatever issue I have with the timing of Sabine Wren’s Jedi storyline, Liu Bordizzo absolutely shines in the role, nailing Sabine’s rebelliousness, her brilliance in both artistic and technical matters and the low-lying depression she’s felt since Ezra (played by Eman Esfandi in a few holograms) disappeared. There wasn’t a moment I doubted her performance.

But the show isn’t called Sabine. So what about Ahsoka herself?

Dawson is totally believable as one of the most powerful force wielders in the galaxy, and her lightsaber training pays off with multiple impressive battles where she wields Ahsoka’s iconic dual blades. If there is one flaw in the performance, she’s missing a bit of the character’s wry sense of humor and brashness in the early going. There was a reason Anakin nicknamed her "Snips" when she was younger, so hopefully she’ll be a little less self-serious as the show continues. 

Pros

Cons

Longtime Star Wars composer Kevin Kiner remains an excellent interpreter for Ahsoka and draws on many of the musical themes he developed for the character over the years.

From a technical perspective, there are a few hiccups that prove distracting. Ahsoka’s trademark head tails (the aforementioned lekku) still look a little rubbery. And it might have been better to let Dawson and Mary Elizabeth Winstead (who plays pilot-turned-Rebel Alliance general Hera Syndulla) keep their natural eye color instead of sporting nuclear-colored contacts. 

And unlike Andor, which abstained from Lucasfilm’s groundbreaking LED backdrop technology in favor of practical sets to great cinematic effect, some of Ahsoka’s scenes look like they were obviously shot with the technology. They have the same over-bright lighting and video game-esque look that plagued the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and some later Mandalorian episodes. The technology works far better in darker scenes, and thankfully those are at least lit well enough to clearly show what is happening, which is a rarity in television cinematography nowadays (coughHouseoftheDragoncough).

Speaking of Andor, fans of that series’ trenchant commentary on life under a fascist state might find Ahsoka a bit mild by comparison. This series is much more like the rollicking The Mandalorian in nature than Tony Gilroy's serious-minded series. But this show continues the former series’ investigation into how the flaws of the New Republic’s early years helped set the stage for the rise of the First Order.

And there are many different flavors of Star Wars to be had. Between the lightsaber battles, Force lore, New Republic politicking and colorful characters, any type of Stars Wars fan should find something appealing in Ahsoka. But longtime Rebels fans will be in for a special treat. (7.8/10)

Release date: First two episodes premiere Aug. 22 at 9 pm ET on Disney+, followed by weekly releases until Oct. 3

Who's in it: Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Lars Mikkelsen, Eman Esfandi, David Tennant, Diana Lee Inosanto, Clancy Brown, Genevieve O’Reilly and Hayden Christensen

Who's behind it: Lucasfilm Creative Director and Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni

For fans of: Star Wars: Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars

Avoid if: You loved Andor but aren't into The Mandalorian

Number of episodes watched: 2 (of 8) 

Where to watch: Disney+