While my fanship of Star Wars will always center around the adventures of Luke, Leia & Han in the original trilogy of movies, for my son and daughter their interest in the franchise revolves more around The Clone Wars and Rebels animated television shows. We would have a family tv night each week devoted to watching a newly released episode. So, they are GEEKED that the characters and plots from these cartoons are being continued in the new AHSOKA live action series coming to the Disney+ streaming service. Of course, since being a Star Wars fan since I was a kid myself, I'm excited for this new show to debut too!
From viewing the trailer for AHSOKA it looks like there is a lot to be excited about. I'm impressed about how well the characters from Star Wars: Rebels appear to transition from cartoons to real actors and actresses. It is nice to see the adventures of these characters carry on. AHSOKA kicks-off exclusively on Disney+ with its first two episodes being released on August 23, 2023.
Set after the fall of the Empire, AHSOKA follows the former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.
"Ahsoka" stars Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Lars Mikkelsen and Eman Esfandi. The episodes are directed by Dave Filoni, Steph Green, Peter Ramsey, Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Vasant Patel and Rick Famuyiwa.
Check out the featurette “Journey to Ahsoka” to learn more about the series from its creators and stars:
Dave Filoni's expansion of the animated Star Wars adventures he crafted into live actions shows continues with the August 2023 debut of AHSOKA on the Disney+ streaming service. Originally a key character in the Clone Wars animated series that Filoni directed, Ahsoka evolved from being Anakin Skywalker's Jedi Padawan (apprentice) to being portrayed as an early leader of the Rebel Alliance in the Star Wars: Rebels cartoons. Now in her live-action incarnation played by Rosario Dawson, Ahsoka finds herself in the years following the fall of the Empire occurring after the events of the Return of the Jedi movie.
My kids have grown up with us having family tv nights to watch new episodes of Clone Wars and Rebels when they originally aired. They are actually bigger fans of the tv shows then any of the Star Wars movies. So, we are fans of Filoni's work with the Star Wars galaxy and excited how he has begun coherently meshing together the animated and live action television shows. Really geeked that it has been announced he will be directing a live action movie that brings together the characters and stories from all The Mandalorian era Disney Plus shows into a feature length theatrical released film.
In anticipation of the next stage of Ahsoka's story, a teaser trailer has been released to promote the upcoming show. There is a lot in it that is both exciting and confusing for Star Wars fans. Check it out:
One of my favorite part of the teaser is that it clearly shows the animated characters that were the heroes of Rebels are coming back together to be a big part of the Disney Plus galaxy of Star Wars live action shows. Not only that but the villain from that series, Thrawn, is coming back to lay claim to being heir to the Empire. It will be interesting if there will be tie-ins to the Timothy Zahn book that originally introduced this fan favorite character before he was revamped into the Rebels storyline. These characters are to my kids like Luke, Leia, Han, R2-D2 and Darth Vader are to me in being favorite Star Wars heroes and villains.
What seems confusing in where the show's timeline is are that there sure seem to be a lot of evil Sith running about. These villains aren't around at Return of the Jedi and don't seem to be around when The Force Awakens takes place. So, what is going on here! I'm intrigued!
While Kathleen Kennedy has been in charge of LucasFilm since the Disney transaction and George Lucas' retirement, it has been Filoni that has kept the franchise alive. Kennedy tore down the magic of the franchise in three poorly executed cash grab movies while Filoni kept the George Lucas style of the franchise alive through his production of Star Wars television shows. There is a whole generation now who relates to Star Wars more through the characters and stories told through Filoni's television series than the movies. Hopefully, Filoni will continue to be able to have more control of steering the franchise's direction and Kennedy will graciously disappear into retirement.
I have a lot of faith in Filoni being the steward of the Star Wars galaxy. My whole family is looking forward to seeing AHSOKA on Disney+ and Filoni's Star Wars movie that ties these shows all together. This is the way!
My whole family is a bunch of Star Wars geeks. My fanship began watching the original trilogy of theatrical movie releases and playing with Kenner Star Wars toys as a kid. While my love of Star Wars is nostalgic to those original movies my wife and children are more tied to the animated series that we've watched together as a family throughout my son and daughter growing up.
My kids associate the character Obi Wan Kenobi more with James Arnold Taylor who voiced the character in the Lucasfilm animated television series than Sir Alec Guinness or Ewan McGregor who played the Jedi Master in the movies (we'll see if this changes when McGregor comes back to play the role in the upcoming Disney Plus live action series). They've grown up cheering for a cast of animated characters just as remarkable as those in any Star Wars film ranging from Anakin Skywalker's padawan Ahsoka Tano in Clone Wars to a boy being trained to be a Jedi by a former padawan who escaped Darth Vader's purge in Ezra Bridger during Rebels. This new generation of Star Wars fans is more fond of these animated series than the prequel and sequel movie trilogies and I appreciate these television shows for having been able to enjoy them together with my wife and kids over the last decade.
So it is really exciting that for Star Wars Day (May the Fourth) that as a treat for fans, Disney Plus will begin streaming the 70-minute premiere of a new animated series that expands upon the stories from the Dave Filoni produced Clone Wars and Rebels shows. Dave's done an excellent job of masterfully expanding upon the Star Wars galaxy in a way that honors the aspects of Star Wars which long-term fans delight in while adding details keeping the stories new and exciting. Filoni contributed to the vibe of The Mandalorian which has quickly become another one of my family's favorite tv shows and it makes us sad that he wasn't involved in the production of the Disney Star Wars movie.
On Tuesday, May 4, 2001 Star Wars: The Bad Batch will debut. The animated series takes place during the dark times between the end of the Clone Wars and the height of the rebellion in the original trilogy. After the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire, a group of clone troopers known as the Bad Batch must navigate their way through a galaxy experiencing drastic and violent change.
The show's stories follow an elite and experimental group of clones that were first introduced in the final season of The Clone Wars as they find their way in a rapidly changing galaxy. Members of Bad Batch—a unique squad of clones who vary genetically from their brothers in the Clone Army—each possess a singular exceptional skill that makes them extraordinarily effective soldiers and a formidable crew. The Bad Batch will incorporate characters from both Clone Wars and Rebels into its stories as well as some from The Mandalorian including assassin Fennec Shand.
We're so geeked for The Bad Batch to arrive on Disney Plus! With this show being released on Star Wars Day the Force will definitely be with us this year!
