Ahsoka fans have been left with mixed feelings after the Star Wars spinoff series confirmed a new castmate, with Rory McCann set to replace the late Ray Stevenson in the role of Baylan Skoll.  4r6k6a

Stevenson died in May 2023 after suffering a brief illness and was beloved by Ahsoka fans, for his resonant voice, gravitas, and complex portrayal of a conflicted Force-using villain that isn’t a lightning-spewing cackling space wizard. Stevenson was known Punisher: War Zone, Rome, Dexter and Thor, while McCann is known for his roles in Game of Thrones, Hot Fuzz and, more recently, Gladiator II. 

Stevenson and McCann were friends, with the former actor’s wife giving her blessing for McCann to inherit the role. McCann has a few months to prepare for the role, with season two of Ahsoka going into production in May. In the meantime, fans have reacted to the recasting in anticipation of McCann’s arrival in the series, with the sentiment seeming largely positive. “Oh, let’s gooo,” one fan quipped on X, with another adding that McCann “stole the show on Game of Thrones” and describing it as “fantastic casting” on the part of production company, Lucasfilm. 

“He will do great,” a third declared, while others agreed that McCann is “a solid replacement” for Stevenson and “will do the role justice.” Elsewhere, fans said that while it’ll be “tough shoes to fill,” McCann is “a fantastic actor” who is “made for these types of roles” and whose casting “was the right decision for the story.” Even beyond the simple recasting, fans reacted positively to continue on with the character of Baylan Skoll rather than writing him off, since the former Jedi is “way too interesting” and there has been “too much lore set up” within season one of Ahsoka. 

“Rory McCann will fit in the role,” another wrote, “he’s a good actor.” As far as recastings go, Stevenson’s replacement has been received far more welcomingly among fans than some other titles. In Game of Thrones, for example, the replacement of Ed Skrein with Michael Huisman in the role of Daario Naharis was met with confusion given their dissimilar appearance, while Ruby Rose’s departure in the title role of Batwoman — to make way for Javicia Leslie — likewise stirred controversy and rumors. 

But for Ahsoka recasting was the only feasible option. Baylan Skoll and his apprentice, Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati, were by some distance the most interesting characters in Ahsoka, though they were frustratingly absent in the season one finale, only appearing in very brief, dialogue-free scenes at the close of the episode.

We should at least be thankful that Disney and Lucasfilm chose not to embrace the dark art of digitally resurrecting Stevenson for a posthumous deepfaked performance. This route must have been discussed given that Star Wars has already used CGI tech to bring back Peter Cushing and Carrie Fisher, but in this instance we think it’s a fitting tribute to Stevenson to have his friend take up the lightsaber.

Despite the controversy surrounding The Acolyte and its mostly lackluster reception, there’s still a lot more Star Wars content on the horizon for fans.

One thing that’s sure to peak excitement is the return of Ahsoka and according to a new report, the show could begin filming very soon. The first season of Ahsoka aired in August 2023 and enjoyed a strong reception for its homage to past releases, including The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels, which remain some of the most cherished titles among fans even though they are animated.

Ahsoka is set to continue its story with a second season, which was initially announced in January of this year. According to industry insider Daniel Richtman, the production cogs have been turning on the series, and it’s now said to kick off its filming schedule in the coming months.

April of 2025 is the month that this new season is expected to begin filming according to Richtman via his Patreon, which was cited by The Direct. The production will take place in the United Kingdom. For now, that’s all of the details that were shared, but the commencement of filming for Ahsoka is exciting enough on its own.

Should this filming timeline prove to be true, and not be impacted by any delays, then fans should expect to see Ahsoka‘s new season arrive sometime in 2026. So while it might be quite a wait before it gets here, the good news is that the second season is very much alive.

Ahsoka season 2 is just one of the Star Wars projects that Disney has in the works. Most notably, the movie The Mandalorian and Grogu is currently in production and is tipped to be THE next big Star Wars release. However, that film reportedly won’t get here until 2026, either. *Cries in impatience.*

For Star Wars fans hungry for something new, the most imminent series to arrive will be Star Wars: Skeleton Crew, a completely unique story being told in the galaxy far far away which will focus on four lost young children who look to the guidance of a force to find their way home. This looks to be the Star Wars equivalent of Stranger Things, and it’s going to be here in less than a month. Honestly, it can’t come soon enough, since we’ve been waiting for Stranger Things 5 for what feels like an eternity.

Following Skeleton Crew, the next Star Wars release (and the first of 2025) will be a second season of Andor, which we expect every fan of the franchise has been dying for. While many of the Disney Plus Star Wars shows have had their fair share of critics, Andor seems to be one of the few that is unanimously praised, so it shouldn’t come as any surprise that a second season of the show is on the cards. New episodes are scheduled to begin airing in April 2025.

We’re still quite a distance away from Ahsoka season 2 getting here so as you would expect, details are being kept pretty hush right now. However, you can expect more information to surface next year when the project enters its production stages, which will hopefully happen in April barring any dreaded setbacks. If you haven’t yet seen season one of the show you can binge through all episodes on Disney Plus right now.

Ariana Greenblatt has appeared in some of the biggest films of the 21st century. She has played pivotal roles in Avengers: Infinity War and Barbie. Both grossed over $1 billion at the worldwide box office, with the former ranking as the sixth highest grossing film of all time. Did we mention she’s still a teenager?

That’s right, Greenblatt has amassed a career most would kill for before graduating high school. Barring any major career changes, the actress is going to be in our lives and on our screens for a long time. Given the wide range of characters Greenblatt has played including the young Ahsoka Tano, some fans may be curious about her ethnicity. That’s what we’re here to help clarify!

Ariana Greenblatt identifies as a biracial woman 1h3i21

Ariana Greenblatt is biracial. Her mother, Soli Greenblatt, is Puerto Rican, while her father, Shon Greenblatt, is of Ashkenazi Jewish descent. The actress proudly sports both sides of her ethnic makeup. In general, Ariana Greenblatt has been cast to play Latinx characters, or younger versions of characters portrayed by actresses who are Latinx.

Some of the most notable examples of this include Avengers: Infinity War, in which Ariana Greenblatt played the younger version of Gamora. The adult version is played by Zoe Saldana, who is of Dominican and Puerto Rican descent. Another instance was Greenblatt’s appearance on the Disney Plus series Ahsoka. She played a younger version of the titular character, while the bulk of the Star Wars drama revolved around Puerto Rican actress Rosario Dawson.

Greenblatt champions Latinx representation onscreen 71y2p

Ariana Greenblatt has done her part to champion Latinx representation onscreen. She played Latinx characters in films like In the Heights (2021) and the aforementioned Barbie. She does, however, acknowledge that there is still a long way to go.

A big part of Greenblatt’s career plan, up to this point and beyond, is to avoid negative stereotypes in the roles she accepts. She elaborated on this point during a 2020 interview with Civilian Magazine. “I stay away from negative-stereotype roles,” she asserted, before adding:

Even if they have some huge director or studio behind them. I’m hyper-aware of my audience and my fan base, which are predominantly other girls just like me, so I always try to that.

Ariana Greenblatt’s plan seems to be working out perfectly. We can’t wait to see what she does next.

The premiere episode of Ahsoka once again featured the Dathomirian loyalist known as Morgan Elsbeth, confirming that she is indeed working to bring back Grand iral Thrawn in a last-ditch effort to resurrect the Empire. Elsbeth also claims to be a member of the Nightsisters, an organization that has played a key role in the political upheavals of the galaxy far, far away since before Palpatine’s rise to power.

The Nightsisters of Dathomir are a mystical group of Force-wielding individuals mostly associated with the dark side. Though there’s no record of their real origins, a lot of people think the Daughters of Dathomir first learned about the Force through an exiled Jedi known as Allya, but the Order denies having ever trained a person by that name. Whatever their roots, the Dathomirians are an essential part of the Skywalker Saga timeline, with their influence pervading the narrative from Episode I — The Phantom Menace (through Darth Maul) to the most recent Ahsoka series on Disney Plus.

But who are the Nightsisters of Dathomir and what is their power?

A brief history of the Witches of Dathomir 2l5666

The Nightsisters, as the name suggests, were a female group of powerful Force-wielders who lived on the planet Dathomir. By tapping into the green magical essence that flowed from the depths of Dathomir, the Nightsisters were capable of performing incredible feats like physical transformation, object apparition, and even resurrection. It was actually the Nightsister coven that healed the broken body of Darth Maul and not only allowed him to exact vengeance on Obi-Wan Kenobi but also to continue to disturb the power dynamic of the galaxy through the Clone Wars.

Asajj Ventress, Dooku’s apprentice, was yet another Dathomirian who became entangled with the dark side of the Force, so even though the community itself rejects the notion of affiliating with either of the Jedi or the Sith, the way they wield this so-called “magick” mostly dallies with immoral and unconventional methods. The Jedi search for enlightenment and fight in the name of peace and justice, while the Sith are out to gain power. The Dathomirians, meanwhile, fought solely for the survival of their clans and the Nightsister coven, so committing atrocious acts in the name of that code wasn’t something they interpreted as leaning towards the dark side of the Force.

The Nightsisters presided over a matriarchal society and used the male of their clan, known as the Nightbrothers, mostly for breeding purposes. Beyond that, the Nighrbrothers were ferocious warriors who served as bodyguards — the policing force — of Dathomir. Darth Maul and his brother Savage Opress were Nightbrothers, but their paths led them to avoid the cruel treatment the rest of their kin received at the hands of the Nightsisters.

After Dooku betrays Ventress, she seeks the help of her Dathomirian sisters, and together they decide to take on the Sith. Dooku, meanwhile, grows weary of their meddling and dispatches General Grievous to destroy their society completely. And just as the Mandalorians were eradicated for fear of becoming a thorn in Emperor Palpatine’s side, so were the Dathomirians subjected to the same genocide, losing many of their numbers in the ensuing massacre.

Few Nightsisters are still living in the post-Imperial era, and not all of them are inherently villainous. While Elsbeth may have thrown in her lot with Grand iral Thrawn and the small possibility of the Empire’s resurrection, someone like Merrin from Jedi: Fallen Order and Jedi: Survivor is still fighting the good fight.

Unlike her Nightsister kin, Morgan was loyal to the Emperor and became a crucial figure in the formation of Palpatine’s massive armada. After the fall of the tyrannical regime, Elsbeth continued to rule her domain with an iron fist, until Ahsoka Tano and Din Djarin ousted her in the second season of The Mandalorian.

It’s currently unclear what Elsbeth’s endgame is, but Ahsoka Tano would do well not to underestimate her. She may not be able to give her much of a fight — as many Nightsisters were substantially weaker than a trained Jedi Knight or Sith Lord — but she can still make a whole lot of trouble through that particular, mystical channeling of the Living Force.

Does the coven of witches in The Acolyte have any connection to the Nightsisters of Dathomir? 1l411x

Over the years, Star Wars has introduced fans to many kinds of Force-s across the galaxy. One of these made their debut in The Acolyte as the “coven of witches” on Brendok. While the all-female Force wielders who refer to this energy as the “thread” share many similarities with the Nightsisters of Dathomir, it’s clear that they’re of a completely different cloth.

For one thing, the Nighsisters refer to their art as magick, while the coven of witches refers to it as the thread. What’s more, the Nightsisters have historically proven themselves to be more aligned with the dark side of the Force, while the witches of Brendok like to believe that they’ve found a balance in the Force, neither leaning towards the dark side and nor particularly embodying the light.

The posthumous performance of Ray Stevenson in the Star Wars series Ahsoka is being rightly praised despite his somewhat limited dialogue in the series, something he makes up for with his commanding on-screen presence.

Stevenson’s depiction of the force-sensitive character Baylan Skoll relies heavily on subtle facial expressions and his skill of emphasizing certain words with particular emotions, which is imperative considering the very restricted script for his character.

Yet, to everyone watching, it’s all quite sad because earlier this year Stevenson shockingly ed away just a few days shy of his 59th birthday.

He suffered serious chest pains while filming the movie Cassino in Italy back in May 2023.  He was itted to the hospital, but his chest pains worsened and he ed away the next day. No actual cause of death has yet been revealed.

One of Stevenson’s many memorable roles was as the infamous pirate Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard, in the award-winning Starz series Black Sails.

For those who have not yet seen Black Sails, I dare say turn away or consider the rest of this article a spoiler alert.

In the show, Teach is returning to seek out another pirate, Charles Vane, whom he had teamed up with on many adventures before and was a mentor to but who had also done him wrong the last time they saw each other. However, Teach wasn’t returning to take vengeance on Vane but rather seek him out to re-team with him. Why? As Stevenson so perfectly portrays in the series, Teach has something of a soft spot for Vane and sees him as the son he never had, something he eventually tells the fellow pirate.

Surprised over Teach’s sentimentality, Vane agrees to team up again with Teach but somewhat on Vane’s . Teach thus becomes a great help to Vane’s immediate aspirations.

Portraying a fearsome pirate with something of a heart is not exactly easy to pull off for any actor, but Ray Stevenson offered a model performance. His role, as a sword-slashing villain with complicated emotions, also likely greatly benefitted him in his role as Baylan Skoll, a lightsaber-slashing villain with complicated emotions.

However, Black Sails was not the first time he depicted a swordsman. Stevenson played Porthos in the 2011 film The Three Musketeers, which greatly swayed from the its source — a literary classic courtesy of Alexandre Dumas. In fact, the Musketeers sort of become pirates at one point in the movie, and even end up pirating on zeppelin-like balloons in the sky. It’s quite unique, really, though I personally prefer the 2014-17 series from the BBC, titled The Musketeers, which Black Sails coincidentally feels much more like, especially in of era depiction.

In episode XXIV of Black Sails, Teach reveals the single most motivating reason for wanting to forgive Vane and reconnect with him.

Teach is asked by a woman who knows him all too well what suddenly changed his mind about Vane. 

Stevenson then delivered his lines with a natural poignancy, something perhaps slightly unfamiliar to the series about plundering Pirates. “Things are different now. It doesn’t need to last long.”

Teach then follows up his cryptic statement with a further explanation while pointing to just above his heart. “A little Spanish shrapnel. It went in there when I was not much older than him. Once in a while it migrates, ticks closer to reaching its terminus and striking its chime.” Teach ends his explanation by moving his fingers an inch or two to his heart.

Teach had little time left before his heart would suffer and fail him. While watching the scene now, it’s sadly difficult not to think of Stevenson’s untimely ing, and the chest pains he experienced while his heart failed him.

“A grim little timepiece.” Teach tells the woman, while all-too-aware of his own mortality.

The scene, filmed in 2015, can serve as a haunting reminder for us all. It’s just a matter of time before we meet our own respective mortalities and that unwelcomed meeting could be much sooner than we expect.

Nonetheless, for Ray Stevenson, he was kind enough to leave us decades of such impactful scenes and other more joyous work, much of it without depicting a swordsman. He may have left this world, but so did his Ahsoka character Baylan Skoll — who journeyed not only to another world, but to another galaxy. 

Maybe that’s where we’re all headed.

Black Sails is now streaming on Netflix and I very highly recommend it.

A lot has been said about Ahsoka and its main star Rosario Dawson, but few people have stopped to wonder just why her take on the titular Clone Wars character is different from what they’re familiar with in Ashley Eckstein’s performance.

The new show by Dave Filoni has, alas, ed the ever-growing list of Disney Star Wars projects to receive a mixed reaction from the fandom. While many were thrilled to see Snips in her own proper outing and even enjoyed the cameo appearance of characters like Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker, others thought that the overall plot was a bare-minimum excuse of a narrative, simply there to justify the fanservice-y return of these characters to the small screen.

Moreover, many were quick to point out that Dawson couldn’t capture the energy of Eckstein, who lent Ahsoka her voice in animated format for over a decade. While those are all valid criticisms, at least at first glance, one comedian well-versed in Star Wars lore has come forward to explain why it makes sense for this version of Ahsoka to be worn and world-weary.

As Troy Bond reasons, the Ahsoka we see in the new series is almost 50 years old, so she’s hardly the child-soldier we knew from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What may initially come off as a “wooden portrayal” is simply Ahsoka showing her years, resembling a character like Qui-Gon in wisdom as opposed to young lively souls like Sabine or Ezra.

As one fan further expanded on this point, Ahsoka has been jumping from conflict to conflict since she was a small kid. That kind of experience is bound to wear even the best of us down.

Then again, the mere mention of Ahsoka in live-action was always bound to open a can of worms, so some Star Wars fans are arguing whether or not Dawson’s portrayal actually reflects someone who’s “beaten down” and not someone who’s simply unsure of what they should do with the role.

Besides, for some reason that only the most die-hard Star Wars fans can articulate, you can’t really go comparing Ahsoka to someone like Qui-Gon.

My biggest personal gripe with Ahsoka was its shabby, makeshift narrative, and I’m sure that we would overlook any possible shortcomings on Dawson’s part if Filoni somehow managed to get the story right in the second season, confirmed to be in production as of January 2024.

Ahsoka might be scratching an itch many fans of the Star Wars: The Clone Wars have been feeling since the series wrapped in 2020, but many of us are still feeling the sting of our missing favorites. Ahsoka’s first nemesis Asajj Ventress lives rent-free in many fans’ minds, but the bald baddie will never get the chance for a live-action adaptation.

At least not in the current canon. Though it never happened on screen, the Sith assassin met her end in a climactic clash years before Ahsoka began her search for Ezra Bridger.

What happened to Asajj Ventress? 5f163v

By the end of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Ventress is a practicing bounty hunter in the outer rim worlds. Her skills with a saber, connection to the force, and natural Dathomarian talents make her more than capable of competing with the best of the worst. The former assassin is quickly dubbed, “The Bald Banshee,” and gains a reputation for only working solo.  

Her fierce reputation was enough to keep most rival hunters away, but her only long-term partner, Quinlan Vos wasn’t the average thug. A longtime friend of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Vos was the first of his kind: a Jedi assassin.  Though it went against the Order’s primary beliefs, the Jedi Council felt that Count Dooku presented enough of a threat to warrant a break from tradition. Vos intended to familiarize himself with Dooku’s style through Ventress and find a way to use her intimate knowledge of Dooku’s fighting style to assassinate the Separatist leader.

Vos playfully tailed Ventress for weeks, sometimes interfering with her hunt, sometimes helping. He proved himself to be reliable and trustworthy, and against her better judgment, Ventress became fond of her new friend. Though it went against her nature, the duo agreed to a temporary alliance. Though Vos was skilled at hiding his Jedi abilities, Ventress quickly began to notice his true nature.  

While Ventress began to suspect Vos of being force-sensitive, the Jedi was falling in love with her. His feelings came to a head after a mission gone awry, and Vos itted his affiliations with the Jedi Order. Ventress was well aware of his connections and cautioned him against assassination. It went against many of the Jedi’s ideals, and she felt Vos was too soft for cold-blooded murder. Despite her reservations, Ventress longed for revenge against her former master, and agreed to help Vos if he left the Order and allowed her to train him in the dark side.

During their training, Ventress realized that she reciprocated the former Jedi’s feelings. The duo became more than master and apprentice, and Ventress came to trust him completely. She took Vos to her home world of Dathomir where she pushed him to embrace the dark side of the force using Night Sister tricks. When Vos finally managed to kill in cold blood, she knew he was ready.  

Despite multiple attempts on Dooku’s life, the duo was destined to fail. Their feelings for one another caused their first attempt to fail, and Ventress was forced to abandon Vos to Dooku’s dark machinations. She spent her life’s saving in an attempt to save Vos, but when she found him in prison, he was a shell of his former self. Where Ventress had failed to open Vos to all that the dark side had to offer, Dooku had been successful. The Sith lord twisted Vos’s mind, manipulating him into hating Ventress for leaving him behind. She attacked his former teacher, refusing to listen to her words of reason.

Badly injured and forced to retreat, Ventress took the news of Vos’s fate to the Jedi council with help from Obi-Wan Kenobi. Though the Jedi were skeptical of her intentions, Ventress convinced them of her story. Kenobi believed his former rival and quickly offered to help her save his friend.  

Obi-Wan tapped Anakin Skywalker to their assault, and the trio broke into Dooku’s palace. They found Quinlan in a worse state than Ventress had last seen. He was badly beaten and starved, and while he pleaded with her to forgive him for his assault and claimed to have seen through Dooku’s tricks, she felt anger under the surface. Though Kenobi couldn’t sense the darkness within, Ventress believed that the only way Vos could ever be free of the dark side was through death.

Kenobi returned Vos to the Jedi order, but Ventress couldn’t trust her former paramour. Though Vos’s return to the Jedi Order meant the two could never romantically reconcile, the two still met in secret. Ventress’s concerns were validated when the Jedi Council began to suspect Vos of sending information back to Dooku. In a bid to force Vos to reveal his true nature, the Council renewed Vos’s mission to assassinate Count Dooku.

Though she had tried to fight her feelings, Ventress still loved Vos. Unable to let him go to his death, she ed his mission and the pair traveled together. Their plan failed, and when Dooku loosed a flurry of dark lighting at Quinlan, Ventress took the blow. Quinlan stayed with Ventress as Dooku escaped. In the end, Ventress was right: . It was death that brought Quinlan Vos back from the dark side, just not his own. As she faded into death, the light side of the force carried her away, and with it, it cleansed Vos of Dooku’s influence.

It’s no secret that Star Wars fans are less than happy with most of Disney Plus’ latest offerings. Fans look on in frustration as Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau work to fill in ample plot holes left by the sequel trilogy and bring the franchise back to its roots. Filoni’s push to MCU-ify the Star Wars universe by merging every Disney Plus offering into one end-all-film seems more appealing if it fits the nostalgia of the first 3 films.

But some fans see the return to George Lucas’ inspiration as a step in the wrong direction. DibsNext recently posted a perfect satirical article about Disney’s overuse of George Lucas’ love for legendary director Akira Kurosawa, and it got me wondering: at what point does the merit of an homage start to bring down the quality?

George Lucas and his love for Akira Kurosawa 6e6721

There’s no denying that Filoni is pushing hard to return to the franchise’s roots (isn’t that what every despot over on Twitter X actively requests?) and while it might not be innovation at its finest, there is merit to mimicking what you love, especially if it gives us some incredible visual style. Some of the most iconic shots from the original trilogy were born from Lucas’ emulation of legendary Japanese director Kurosawa.

Back in 1965, there wasn’t a lot of diversity in what was available to watch (thanks, Hays Code) and most media available was American-made. Kurosawa’s style was taken from American Westerns and silent movies, the same media that Lucas was studying while in film school. He liked the feeling of being thrown into an unknown environment, but one that made sense without cumbersome explanations. Lucas has said that it’s hard to see the true genius unless it’s interspersed with other less impressive directors. That visual style involves dramatic shots of action and the world, and more importantly, it doesn’t rely on exposition to get concepts across. Lucas has said that these captivating shots help establish tone and believes that many modern filmmakers don’t utilize those visual cues to their full advantage.

It should be no surprise that the California native had no concept of Japanese culture and no background in the language as a college student. Despite this, the human stories at the heart of Kurosawa’s films were easy to understand. While there were plenty of aspects to the stories that Lucas had no background in, it was unnecessary. Even if the culture was complex and oblique and the environment unknown, with the right elements, the story still made perfect sense. Knowing that Lucas never intended to keep the franchise going after the first film, the enigma makes perfect sense. The explanation for every aspect is something that Star Wars needs to unlearn from Marvel (no one cares about Sabin’s Loth-cat, Disney).

Dave Filoni has certainly gotten the memo about visual cues, if Ahsoka is any indication. Regardless of where you stand on the pacing, plot, or characters, there’s no denying the visual style of the series. It’s got everything from iconic vistas and dramatic upshots to dynamic gang poses and heroic stances. Filoni has certainly mastered the visual style of Kurosawa, but in a lot of ways he’s still working towards the human story.

While we love seeing the lore of Star Wars deepen, I keep coming back to one idea: maybe Star Wars audiences as a whole don’t care about the nitty-gritty and are only here for the overall. It’s the oblique that makes fantasy so intriguing. Fans may have complained about not knowing how the Force worked, but now that we have our answer in the form of midichlorians, it seems that many would take vague mysticism.

Ezra Bridger has come a long way since his days living as a street rat on Lothal. The Star Wars Rebels protagonists stand alongside Anakin, Luke, and Rey Skywalker as one of the most prominent Jedi heroes in all of Star Wars.

Like his cinematic counterparts, he grew from a lonely kid to a galaxy-saving warrior once he ed the crew of The Ghost and learned to fight for something greater than himself. By the time of Ahsoka, for instance, Ezra has become a legend himself.

But exactly how old is Ezra in Ahsoka, and how young was he in Rebels? If the beard and the blocky animation are throwing you off, maybe this will help…

Ezra went from adolescence to adulthood in Star Wars Rebels 2qq30

Ezra’s age is actually easy to track as his birthday is such an important date in Star Wars history — he was born on the day the Empire took over the galaxy, aka Empire Day, which is the year 3258 per Lothal’s calendar or 19 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin, the destruction of the original Death Star).

He first encounters the Ghost crew in the year 3272 LY, meaning he’s 14 during the events of the show’s first few episodes. He then turns 15 in season 1, episode 8.

As Rebels expands across the rest of its four seasons, the timeline becomes a little bit harder to nail down, but we know that the series concludes in 0 BBY.

Again, thanks to Ezra’s easy-to- birthday it doesn’t take a math whizz to work out that Ezra was about 19 years old when he has his grand showdown with Grand iral Thrawn in the finale and the pair of them vanish from the face of the galaxy, leading his friends to search for him many years hence.

Ezra is older than he looks in Ahsoka p44t

The exact placement of Ahsoka in the Star Wars timeline is actually the subject of much scrutiny from Star Wars historians but thanks to its close relationship with The Mandalorian we can assume it takes place pretty much in line with Mando season three and is set in 11 ABY. So Ezra and Thrawn have been MIA for over a decade at this point, having missed the entirety of the downfall of the Empire and the rise of the New Republic.

This means that when Sabine Wren finally reunites with her long-lost friend on the planet Peridea in the other galaxy, Ezra is likely around 30 years old. If you’re thinking he looks pretty youthful for his age then you would be right. Esfandi is actually only 26 himself, so he’s playing a character a little older than himself.

The faded blue in his hair — does blue hair age into black hair not gray? Discuss — and his beard helps sell the illusion, though.

The Ahsoka series on Disney Plus reminds everyone why they adore its titular protagonist and her journey through the Star Wars canon timeline. That being said, how old was Snips during each of those appearances, and is she weathered and wise enough to truly manifest the galaxy far, far away’s Gandalf?

How old is Ahsoka in each Star Wars series? 6d6l3u

So far, Ahsoka Tano has appeared in 6 different Star Wars projects through the years. Her first chronological appearance was in Tales of the Jedi, which depicted a child version of the character in her native homeworld.

Ahsoka was born on the planet Shili in 36 BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and was accepted into the Jedi Order three years after that, in 33 BBY. Years later, in 22 BBY, at the height of the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker accepts Ahsoka as his Padawan. That makes the character 14 years of age when The Clone Wars animated series begins.

After fighting three years against the Separatists, Ahsoka leaves the Jedi Order at the age of 17 (the year 19 BBY), and a short while after that, the Siege of Mandalore arc from Star Wars: The Clone Wars season 7 takes place. The next time we see Ahsoka (in Tales of the Jedi) is the year after that at the age of 18. Ahsoka and Bail Organa decide to form a rebel network, with the former working in the shadows to undermine Palpatine’s rule.

Ahsoka is 32 during the events of Star Wars Rebels, which takes place in 4 BBY. The animated show’s epilogue takes place one year after the events of Return of the Jedi in 5 ABY, and it is here that we first see Ahsoka the White, come to reunite with Sabine and go on a hunt for Ezra Bridger. Ahsoka is 41 in this scene.

The character’s live-action version then appears in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and subsequently Ahsoka, all taking place in 9 ABY, which makes her, as of this moment, 45.

She’s absolutely rocking that wizened look, if we dare say.

Will Rosario Dawson get the opportunity to wear the lekku and dazzle Star Wars fans with her portrayal of the titular Snips in Ahsoka again?

The new series occurred in the post-Imperial timeline and shared continuity with the ongoing Mandoverse. Ahsoka finally made her solo live-action debut alongside a host of other characters from Rebels, and the result was an epic 8-parter that took us to another galaxy for the first time in Star Wars canon.

What’s more, Ahsoka doesn’t end on a conclusive note, so I guess it was only a matter of time before Disney greenlit a second season. There’s just a lot of potential to this new story and timeline. All of our legacy characters are here, after all, and the show proves that its main heroine still has a lot of room for growth. So, regardless of how the confrontation with Grand iral Thrawn concluded on Oct. 3 last year when the season finale premiered, there’s more to come from Star Wars maestro Dave Filoni.

Is Ahsoka coming back for another season? 5x6d2h

Though Dave Filoni and the rest of the producers remained, Disney has just confirmed that season 2 is already undergoing pre-production. Not only that, but Jon Favreau is developing a Mandalorian & Grogu movie before they take part in a huge Mandoverse crossover event directed by Dave Filoni. Think Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame but in the galaxy far, far away context, with Ahsoka playing a key part in bringing it all together.

The second season will probably involve Snips trying to find a way back to the main galaxy, but not before uncovering the secrets of the strange extra-planet that harbored the visages of the Mortis gods. iral Thrawn, meanwhile, will continue to enact his plan for the Empire’s resurrection. Ezra is back with his friends, but if the interconnectivity of this narrative is anything to go by, it will take more than the original Rebels crew to beat Thrawn.

Perhaps these Mandalorian movies will pit all these live-action characters against Thrawn in an epic showdown. And who knows? Maybe legacy characters like Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and Princess Leia will make a comeback through deep fake technologies. This could end up being the sequel trilogy we always wanted, so I think it’s safe to say the future of the Mandoverse looks more exciting than ever.

What’s all the rage on Disney Plus these days? The new Percy Jackson series, which might erase the sins of the OG adaptation, and Marvel’s What If? season 2, right? Nope. Because during the wee hours of Dec. 22, 2023, a new Star Wars special, featuring the best character from Ahsoka, was dropped on Disney Plus.

Now, there are plenty of Star Wars projects in the work and they all are, more or less, confirmed or at least rooted in some very solid rumors. There are whispers of a Mandalorian film, the series like Star Wars Skeleton Crew, The Acolyte, Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie, and a lot more. What has been keeping the zealous followers of the galaxy far, far away is how Pedro Pascal (Mando) and everyone else associated with the show keep dancing around the confirmation of his return as Din Djarin amid rumors that he is done with the show for good.

Evidently, Lucasfilm sensed the trepidation and probably thought that what we need to truly soothe our frayed nerves is 2 hrs, 5 minutes, and 52 seconds of just watching Sabine’s loth cat, Murley — whom we first met in Ahsoka — sleep on a countertop while different Star Wars themes played in the background.

Yep, I am not kidding. You can hop on Disney Plus right now to check it out or check out Disney Plus’ proudly announcing the latest additions to its library, which also contains Ahsoka: Sabine’s Loth-Cat. 

So, this is a gift of sorts for those who dearly missed Murley, were worried about what happens to the adorable loth-cat while Sabine is stuck in a whole other galaxy and Ezra embarks on his own adventures, and also missed out on Dave Filoni reassuring fans that he is all right, having fun with other loth-cats, and is not stuck in the Mandalorian warrior’s tower in her absence.

Seeing as we never really got the Baby Yoda special we have been requesting [re: demanding], this could be seen as a gift for ardent irers of the exceptionally adorable creatures Star Wars is home to. And of course, there is no denying that even though watching Murley sleep serves no logical purpose, it is a lot better than the franchise’s many glaring errors.

But , Disney, in its ongoing attempt to merge Hulu and Disney Plus, just amped up the subscription price. Offering 2 hours of Star Wars Lofi is understandably not sitting right with disgruntled viewers who have pointed out how the special now has a place on the streamer while many of the wrongfully purged shows from the streamer are still not available to watch anywhere.

Now, no matter how overwhelmingly cute Murley is, that is a valid point. The last argument is backed up by the fact that the “special” first aired live on YouTube, in a whopping 11-hour version, back in October, when the final episode of Ahsoka was released. So, Disney saw it fit to release Sabine’s Loth-Cat on the streamer even as it continues to delete content from its platform without so much as a warning? We better mull over that thought as Murley soundly sleeping to Sabine’s Star Wars theme runs in the background.