With the summer coming to an end, Lucasfilm’s next Star Wars live-action series finally made its way to Disney+. Following in the footsteps of The Mandalorian, Andor and The Book of Boba Fett, the latest series in the ‘Mando-verse’ reunites fans with their favourite Grey Jedi – Ahsoka.
5 years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Ahsoka follows former Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and her former padawan Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) as they attempt to recapture escaped prisoner & Imperial loyalist Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto), who escaped prison thanks to Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) and Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhano). As they pursue their targets across the galaxy, it’s up to our heroes to stop this trio before they reach their ultimate goal – the long-lost Imperial threat, Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen).
For many fans, myself included, this series is the culmination of our childhoods. Many of us have grown up alongside Ahsoka Tano, with her being only a teenager when she was introduced in The Clone Wars back in 2008. This season had some great elements to it: the combination of new and previously seen Star Wars ideas, concepts, and characters (Huyang (David Tennant), a Jedi droid who helped younglings build lightsabers being a notable mention) and the chilling return of Grand Admiral Thrawn. And the production quality throughout the series is unparalleled, with creative visuals and chilling music from Kevin Kiner.
But looking at the entire season, whilst it was good, it didn’t have as big of an impact as I had hoped. Now this may be partially because I went into the season with very high hopes, especially with both Ahsoka & Thrawn (my favourite two characters in Star Wars) being in it together, but the overall story & pacing let it down a bit. The ending of the season wasn’t bad by any means, but it felt more like an ending that belonged mid-season. This may be potentially to set up for a second season, but right now, everything feels as it did at the start of the season.
The cast do have some fantastic performances. Bordizzo as Sabine Wren translates her character from Star Wars Rebels with such consistency. Her style and charisma is perfect for a character such as Sabine. Mikkelsen returns to play Thrawn after voicing him in Rebels and the chills from this man’s voice are unrivalled. He is quiet but malevolent, and threatening in a way that no villain I’ve ever seen is. Also, honourable mentions to David Tennant as Huyang, and the late Ray Stevenson as Baylan Skoll, who passed away shortly before the season began.
Trust in the Force.
All episodes of #Ahsoka are now streaming on @DisneyPlus. pic.twitter.com/ua5YOKqBW3
— Ahsoka (@ahsokaofficial) October 4, 2023
Ahsoka is a great attempt at a brilliant season that does lots in a great and powerful way but falls short of many expectations for this season as a whole. I do look forward to the continuation of these stories, but would have appreciated another episode or two to do it justice.
Verdict – 3/5