Over the weekend, The Mandalorian star Rosario Dawson made an appearance at the Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo. There, she fielded a number of questions from fans (including one about The Punisher's MCU return), and addressed how Star Wars Rebels villain Grand Admiral Thrawn is going to factor into Ahsoka when it premieres on Disney+ next year.
Asked where Thrawn is following the conclusion of the animated series, the actor joked about him being "incognito" before confirming that Ahsoka will continue her mission from The Mandalorian: hunting the Imperial down.
"That dude, man...incognito. Maybe we get the Scarlet Witch to help us, she can jump through Multiverses, right? Let’s go, girl!" Dawson joked (via SFFGazette.com). "Yeah, I mean, that’s a really big key kind of giveaway in Mando about what my show could potentially be about. Obviously, we are really trying to track [Thrawn] down, so we'll see what happens..."
Thrawn disappeared alongside Ezra Bridger in the Star Wars Rebels finale, so the former Jedi is clearly hoping the villain leads her back to the powerful Jedi Padawan.
There have been hints that Thrawn might have somehow returned to power since the last time we saw him, and fans are convinced Moff Gideon is part of his cabal. As both Ahsoka and The Mandalorian are set after the events of Return of the Jedi, it seems likely that Thrawn played a key role in attempting to resurrect Emperor Palpatine and The First Order's early days.
Later, Dawson would reveal how showrunner Dave Filoni reacted to watching a finished episode of Ahsoka.
"So, I will say this," the actor started. "I will probably get in trouble for saying this, but Dave [Filoni] saw one of the episodes already edited together, and he walked up, him and Carrie Beck, both, like, glossy-eyed, and he said to me that it was 'a religious experience.'"
Talk about high praise, eh?
Ahsoka doesn't have a confirmed premiere date, but it is coming to Disney+ in 2023.