Ahsoka Season 1 (2023) Review

It is Star Wars Celebration Europe in London over the next four days and I am so excited that I am going to be there on both Sunday and Monday. But first in the Lucasfilm panel today they revealed the first trailer for the upcoming Disney+ series Ahsoka and it has made its way online and I just watched it and here are my first impressions. 

Is there a connection to Jedi: Fallen Order?

This might be me seeing things but at the beginning of the trailer we see Ahsoka entering a building. But that building has a logo on it that looks incredibly similar to the logo that is used by Cal Kestis in the video game Jedi: Fallen Order to replenish his health and upgrade his abilities. With the upcoming sequel Jedi: Survivor coming out, could we see a live action Cal Kestis? I personally don't think so as it would spoil where the game franchise is heading but thought it was a nice easter egg. 

We see Sabine Wren 

There is so many nods and characters connected to Star Wars Rebels here that this is basically a Star Wars: Rebels sequel. The first character we meet is Sabine Wren played by Natasha Liu Bordizzo and at the end of Rebels Sabine & Ahsoka agreed to try and track down Ezra Bridger. Obviously, between the finale of Rebels and this series something happened which saw them go their different ways. With Sabine being a Mandalorian, I am wondering if she will play a part in that show in the last 2 episodes before her introduction here or whether this will be her debut in live action. 

We then get Hera Syndulla and Chopper

The Star Wars Rebels cameos don't stop there. As right after we are introduced to live action Hera Syndulla who is going to be played by Mary Elizabeth Winstead and her trusty droid Chopper. They look like they are flying The Phantom as well which was a ship used on the show. At the end of Star Wars: Rebels Hera was a General in the Rebel Alliance and had also had a force sensitive child Jacen. So it will be speculated whether he makes an appearance in the show. 

The show returns to Lothal

In Star Wars Rebels, the major planet was called Lothal. It was the home of the main protagonist Ezra Bridger controlled by The Empire. The end of Rebels saw it under Rebel control and thriving. I wonder that with the heavy links to Rebels here that the final battle could be set on this planet. Similar to how The Mandalorian has used Nevarro over the three seasons. 

Mon Mothma is back. 

One of the best parts of Andor was the performance of Genevieve O'Reilly as Mon Mothma and she is shown in this trailer. Canon has confirmed that Mothma is the new leader of the New Republic at this point and The Mandalorian has shown how they have kind of messed up the transition after The Empire. Hopefully, with seeing her character we get a greater understanding as to why there are clear issues. She also has connection to the crew from Rebels as they worked together to help form The Rebel Alliance. 

Grand Admiral Thrawn arrives and is rebuilding The Empire.

For years and years, Star Wars fans have been eagerly anticipating the live action debut of Grand Admiral Thrawn and we are finally getting it here. His character was awesome in Rebels and at the end we saw him disappear with Ezra Bridger. He obviously returns here, we haven't got a casting for him yet and the trailer makes it hard to tell but Lars Mikkelson who voiced him on the show has been the main rumour. It was also cool to hear Ahsoka call him the heir of the Empire which was the name of the books that he made his debut, it makes you think whether Thrawn is behind Moff Gideon's plot in The Mandalorian and whether he could become a bigger villain for this whole universe. 

There are new Sith working for Thrawn. 

We see two new Sith, one male and one female. The male one is played by Ray Stevenson who is a great choice. They are clearly ex-Jedi doing the bidding of our main villain and it will be interesting to work out where they actually came from and how they exactly link to Thrawn. 

The main objective is to find Ezra Bridger

There is a scene in the trailer which sees Sabine looking at a hologram of Ezra and alongside Ahsoka's monologue of there not being many Jedi left makes it clear that finding Ezra is the endgame of the show. Thrawn was the last character to see him so I think that is one of the major reasons that Sabine & Ahsoka want to find him. 

Overall

Overall, after the slight disappointment that has been The Mandalorian Season 3, I am so excited for Ahsoka. As a fan of Star Wars: Rebels and Thrawn I am buzzing and this trailer made me hyped to see how Ahsoka is handled and how it affects the overall Star Wars universe.