Everything You Need to Know About ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ From Dave Filoni Himself

Five years after the end of Star Wars Rebels, fans will finally see a follow-up in the upcoming series, Star Wars: Ahsoka. Set after the fall of the Empire, this live-action series follows the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.

In addition to Rosario Dawson in the title role, Ahsoka also stars Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla, Lars Mikkelsen as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Eman Esfandi appearing as Ezra Bridger, who are all making their live-action debuts.

The series is written by noted Star Wars scribe Dave Filoni, who executive produces alongside Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, Colin Wilson, and Carrie Beck. IGN Southeast Asia caught up with Filoni during the production of Ahsoka to learn more about this highly anticipated series.

How did you decide to continue Ahsoka’s story in her own live-action series?

Ahsoka made her live action debut in Episode 13 of The Mandalorian. I had been developing a live-action Ahsoka project before The Mandalorian began when I was still working on Star Wars Rebels.” The next installment of the character had always been on my mind, and I wanted to do it in live action.

Compared to her Clone Wars co-stars, Anakin and Obi-Wan, is Ahsoka more of a contemporary character in the ongoing events in the Star Wars universe?

No, I don’t necessarily think of Ahsoka as contemporary, in fact we’ve always tried to write her in a timeless fashion. She’s an adult now, but her past gives us a look into her behavior and why she is the way she is.

It has been a long road in evolving her from Anakin’s young padawan, and she has grown from there into quite a special character in her own right. We wanted kids to follow her character and see the choices she makes. She’s not perfect; she’s flawed.

She had a lot to learn. The more stories we tell, the more we start to take up all this space in her life, so I keep trying to find ways to make her story full and exciting. I have been telling her story for almost twenty years, which is hard to believe.

Would Star Wars: Ahsoka be a live-action retelling or a continuation of Ahsoka’s story?

It’s a continuation, but you don’t need to have seen “The Clone Wars” to enjoy the story. Hopefully, if I’ve done my job well, this story is clear, and you relate to the characters and their relationships.

There’ll be things that will surprise the audience about Sabine and Ahsoka’s relationship that they don’t know and that you won’t see anywhere in any story prior to this.

How does it feel to be able to tell Ahsoka’s journey across multiple projects?

It’s weird because Ahsoka’s story and her journey and growth has mirrored my own as a filmmaker. As I was less sure and less confident, the stories that she was involved in reflected that and were executed that way.

I had a lot to learn, so as I’ve grown, the stories got more complex, and the friends I’m working with also got more formidable in their skills, so the story gets better as we challenge ourselves and go deeper with the character.

Going into live-action was a big shift, because in animation you can control every detail and even change things late in the game, if you wanted a different look or expression. In live action, you can’t tweak things.

So, I was very fortunate that Rosario Dawson had an interest in playing Ahsoka. That someone of her caliber and talents wanted to step into her Jedi shoes was quite incredible. It is pretty amazing to watch her work.

What was the process of casting Sabine Wren for her live-action debut?

Sabine was very challenging casting because there is so much going on with that character. The ability to fight was paramount because she’s a warrior and a Mandalorian.

When we got a look at Natasha Liu Bordizzo, there was just something about her that seemed right. She was already an amazing martial arts performer, and she also had a sense of fun.

How much training was involved for the actors and stuntmen for the series?

There are things about the Jedi that feel like the Samurai. For a trained warrior, the sword is the last thing they’d resort to, not the first. The sword doesn’t make you powerful. Your will, your self-control and your thoughts are what make you powerful.

So these are the ideas that I’ve tried to put into the story. How Ahsoka trains people and what her own internal philosophy is. To express this we needed a real martial artist to work with the actors, so we hired Ming Qiu and her team.

Ming always has new ideas and likes to try new things. She trains people hard, and it is intense work. We do not have months to train. We have weeks and sometimes just days to get it right. The primary weapon for a Jedi is the lightsaber, so there are a lot of lightsaber fights.

They have to be good because our fans know the difference, so there was a lot of pressure on everyone to up their skill set. Everybody has to work in concert to make it good. It can be a challenge to get all this to flow with the force, if you will, but I am very proud of their efforts.

Lucasfilm’s Star Wars: Ahsoka will launch exclusively through Disney+ Hotstar on August 23.