THE CLONE WARS Showrunner Dave Filoni Hints That STAR WARS Fan-Favourite Ahsoka Tano May Still Be Alive

THE CLONE WARS Showrunner Dave Filoni Hints That STAR WARS Fan-Favourite Ahsoka Tano May Still Be Alive

Ahsoka Tano's voice was among those heard at the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, but The Clone Wars boss Dave Filoni has now hinted that there could still be a future for the beloved character...

By JoshWilding - Feb 20, 2020 12:02 AM EST
Filed Under: Star Wars
Source: io9
Star Wars fans were overjoyed when The Clone Wars' fan-favourite Ahsoka Tano made her return in Rebels, and she was last seen in the series finale alongside Sabine Wren attempting to track down Ezra Bridger. Since then, her status has been a mystery, but Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker appeared to confirm that she's among the dead Jedi who reached out to Rey. 

Now, though, Filoni has made it clear that fans shouldn't deal with absolutes when it comes to the franchise as he hints that Ahsoka could still be out there in this Galaxy Far, Far Away.

"I have to wonder with Star Wars fans," he started. "They seem to watch the movies but they don’t take all the lessons. They deal a lot in absolutes, which is very much a Sith thing. I remember in The Empire Strikes Back Luke speaking out through the force to Leia. Vader also does this at the end of Empire Strikes Back. There’s no absoluteness that these people are dead."

"I mean, some of them we know are dead," Filoni continued. "It doesn’t really have any big implications to what I’m doing with the character, to be honest. I just thought it was a really fun thing. I thought J.J. [Abrams]’s instinct to be so inclusive with all these various elements of Star Wars and characters [was great]. And I thought it would be a great thing for the actors involved to be a part of something that was just really this celebrating moment of the Star Wars saga."

"So when we get to that point [after The Rise of Skywalker] or if we’d ever reach that point again, I don’t know," he concluded. "I’m in this other timeline. I’m in a couple right now. I just honestly love that people ask about the character."

The rumoured Star Wars Rebels sequel series will almost certainly deal with what became of the young Jedi, while The Mandalorian also feels like the right place to bring the character back (fans are, after all, desperate to see her in a live-action setting). We'll have to wait and see, of course.

What do you guys make of these remarks? 

What are the biggest mistakes Disney has made with the
Star Wars franchise? Hit the "Next" button below to find out!

Never Reuiniting The Franchise's "Trinity"

Trio


It's become clear that Lucasfilm never really had a game plan for the sequel trilogy and while George Lucas would frequently make things up as he went along, not having an ending in place and relying on three different filmmakers to attempt to craft one cohesive story was never going to work. 

However, the fact that J.J. Abrams not only failed to bring Luke, Leia, and Han back together again for one more scene but killed the latter off so early on is downright unforgivable. 

It was completely the right decision to move the spotlight to a new trio of heroes rather than, well, an elderly group of adventurers, but it's hard not to feel robbed that we were never given the opportunity to explore their lives together. To make matters worse, the impact of Han's death on Luke was barely even touched on in The Last Jedi, and this is one mistake that can now never be undone.
 

The Fall Of Luke Skywalker

uke


Talking of Luke, it's not hard to see why Mark Hamill was so disappointed and disillusioned by how the character's story arc was handled across this trilogy. 

With seconds of screentime in The Force Awakens and then the reveal in The Last Jedi that he had gone into hiding after Ben Solo was turned to the Dark Side (rather than, you know, trying to stop Supreme Leader Snoke and the First Order), Luke was depicted as a failure and a far cry from the hero fans had imagined the Jedi Knight becoming in the years following Return of the Jedi.

There is a lot about this that admittedly worked, but a brief Force Ghost appearance in The Rise of Skywalker wasn't enough to undo the damage that had been dealt to him in the years prior. 
 

Telling Stories That Didn't Need To Be Told

Han


Rogue One was a fun ride and Solo is much better than a lot of people give it credit for. But did we really need to learn about the Rebels who stole the Death Star plans or find out that an Imperial officer named the iconic space-smuggler Han "Solo"? 

Given the massive creative issues these spinoffs faced behind the scenes (Rogue One went through major third act reshoots, while Solo had a change of directors during production), it's clear that Lucasfilm struggled to tell these stories and this likely comes as a result of Disney wanting yearly Star Wars movies in theaters. 

Unfortunately, the reaction to Solo led to a lot of great sounding spinoffs being scrapped, and the studio seemingly deciding not to further explore this period outside of Disney+. That's not the right move; instead, they just needed to make better decisions when it came to which stories actually needed to be told. 
 

Too Much Fan-Service

Palpatine


Nowhere was this particular complaint more relevant than with The Rise of Skywalker. Rian Johnson made a lot of ballsy and divisive decisions in The Last Jedi, some of which worked, while others did not. However, to essentially undo those in a bid to make fans happy with the Skywalker Saga finale backfired on Lucasfilm in a big way. 

Everything from Emperor Palpatine's return to Rose Tico receiving pretty much no screentime felt forced and a way of making the angry, middle-aged fans who spend thousands of dollars a year on merchandise happy. 

The focus should have instead been on taking what Johnson did and building on it in order to create a satisfying and cohesive ending that didn't feel like a completely different movie tacked onto the two that preceded it. Lucasfilm tried to make everyone happy and instead delivered a film which didn't really work for anyone (hence why it's the worst-reviewed Star Wars movie to date). 
 

A Long List Of Unanswered Questions

Knights


Look, we're not asking for everything to be spelled out to us, but why would The Force Awakens introduce so many huge mysteries only to never actually explain them in any way? It's true that the original trilogy didn't reveal the Emperor's backstory, but there wasn't really much need for that and the expectations of moviegoers have changed a lot since he first appeared. 

Supreme Leader Snoke has been dismissed as a creation of Palpatine's but we've had no explanation about how that actually worked. The same goes for the iconic villain's return from the dead, not to mention the origins of the Knights of Ren, a group teased in The Force Awakens, forgotten about in The Last Jedi, and then given seconds of meaningless screentime in The Rise of Skywalker.

In fact, many of these unanswered questions have been addressed in comic books and tie-in novels rather than the movies themselves, a pretty lousy form of storytelling when you think about it.
 

Too Many Jedi Knights

Kanan


If Rogue One and Solo proved anything, it's that Star Wars can work without the endless battle between the Jedi and Sith. However, fans still want to see that lightsaber action, hence why we've now learned that Order 66 didn't really wipe out the Jedi Order. In fact, there were plenty of them left scattered across the Galaxy based on what we've seen in the comics, video games, and TV shows. 

Not only does this make Luke and Obi-Wan Kenobi significantly less special than we thought, but it dilutes the Force and the importance of the Skywalker family on the battle between the Light and Dark sides of the Force. 

We have been introduced to a lot of great characters, and the idea that Darth Vader hunted down the remaining Jedi is one that works, but even the concept of the Sith Inquisitors and Knights of Ren lessens the impact of the Sith and what we thought was the supposedly important "Rule of Two."
 

Forgetting The Expanded Universe

Revan


Look, it's not hard to understand why Lucasfilm decided to do away with the Expanded Universe as the new movies being beholden to decades of novels, video games, and comics would have made no more sense than Marvel Studios attempting to set a future Marvel movie in the same world as the comic books and hoping that non-hardcore fans would be able to follow what's happening!

While a clean slate was the right move for the new movies, to leave so much of what made Star Wars great from the EU off the table feels like a major mistake on Lucasfilm's part.

Everything from Darth Revan to Mara Jade and Starkiller being forgotten about feels like a missed opportunity, and when Lucasfilm has attempted to deliver new takes on these concepts and characters, it hasn't really worked! Again, a little more planning would have helped with this issue as there really are parts of the EU which deserved to live on. 
 

A Lack Of Pay-Offs

Maul


We've mentioned things like Supreme Leader Snoke and the Knights of Ren, but a lack of pay-offs really has been plaguing this era of Star Wars stories from the very start. 

Darth Maul's return in Solo has seemingly been forgotten about; Finn spent the entirety of The Rise of Skywalker debating whether to tell Rey that he suddenly has Force powers without us ever getting to see that conversation; the return of Darth Vader's helmet meant nothing as it was just the Emperor pretending to be him when Kylo Ren communicated with his "grandfather."

These are just a few examples, but far too many storylines have been set up without any sort of proper resolution and that's made it hard to get invested in this era of storytelling.
 

Change For The Sake Of Change

Sith2


Merchandise has always been a huge part of the Star Wars franchise, but never has that been more apparent than during the period Lucasfilm has been owned by Disney. 

C-3PO was given a red arm in The Force Awakens because that would mean people would actually want to buy new toys featuring the iconic droid (the change, meanwhile, was only addressed in a random comic book). Because Kylo Ren's helmet is a top seller, it was reforged in The Rise of Skywalker even though it's destruction was a key character moment for the villain in The Last Jedi

Oh, and do try not to forget those red Sith Troopers in the latest instalment of the trilogy! Disney likes to sell toys, and that means we've seen a lot of pointless changes like these.
 

The End Of The Skywalkers

Sith


The story of the Skywalker family spanned nine films but, ultimately, it seems that none of them really managed to bring balance to the Force. Darth Vader killed his Master but a bunch of unnamed Sith loyalists ended up bringing him back from the dead. Luke gave up and hid on an island and Leia just died after reaching out to her son (a sad necessity due to Carrie Fisher's real-life demise). 

The Skywalkers went out with a whimper rather than a bang, and while it was great to see Ben Solo find redemption, having Rey Palpatine declare herself "Rey Skywalker" was all sorts of cringe.

It's hard to escape the feeling that, really, the Skywalkers are now just a footnote in the history books of this Galaxy and not as important as we were once led to believe. After everything Anakin went through, he didn't even make a cameo appearance here, and if we do see another Skywalker on screen in the future...well, they'll probably be a descendent of Emperor Palpatine...

Do you guys agree that Lucasfilm has made some major mistakes since 2012 or are we being too harsh? Let us know your thoughts on that in the comments section below.
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bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 2/20/2020, 1:00 AM
If she is still around during TROS, doesnt that make her the longest living character from the Clome Wars era?
Ace101
Ace101 - 2/20/2020, 1:06 AM
@MalseMarcel - palpatine, her, hera possibly (she was in the first season of clone wars I believe when riloth was under attack and her dad was leading the resistance).
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 1:16 AM
@Ace101 - Nope, wasn't her.
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 1:35 AM
@GhostofCipher - Clones age faster than regular humans so that's probably a nope.
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 1:45 AM
@GhostofCipher - Well that isn't canon for one.
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 2:03 AM
@TheJustinHammer - Well, sure but that's shaky. On that note, Wookieepedia says clones "were also designed to age at twice the rate of natural humans." Rex was supposedly born in 32 BBY and the Battle of Endor takes place in 4 ABY; so he'd be like 70 something.
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 2:19 AM
@TheJustinHammer - That's fair as far as I'm aware apart from the "(with Mando blood)" bit. :P
bkmeijer2
bkmeijer2 - 2/20/2020, 3:22 AM
@GhostofCipher @Ace101 - Maybe I should've said after TROS. Sure there are some force ghosts left after Palpatine is killed, but it appears Ashoka is the only one alive left as far as confirmation goes
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 1:03 AM
I mean, she'd be like 70 at the time anyway. It's not like she's relevant to the era or anything anyway.
Nebula
Nebula - 2/20/2020, 1:03 AM
boogiefett
boogiefett - 2/20/2020, 1:47 AM
What if she’s the Jedi the Mandalorian brings The Baby to. I’ll lose it !
Odin
Odin - 2/20/2020, 3:28 AM
@boogiefett - Yeah, ever since it was said that some established Star Wars character would show up in future seasons of the Mandalorian, I've been hoping it would Ahsoka. Could be Luke, but I wonder if Disney let's them use such a high profile character in a TV show. Especially when they'd had to recast younger actor (Sebastian Stan as Luke!).
boogiefett
boogiefett - 2/20/2020, 7:18 AM
@TheJustinHammer - Luke would make more sense but what would Disney do to introduce him back? CGI his face ? Bring in a younger actor ( I doubt that one) , have him just referenced ( not with The Baby having such a huge impact on show) so many possibilities
boogiefett
boogiefett - 2/20/2020, 7:20 AM
@Odin - agree on reintroducing Luke - what direction does Disney go in to have him appear.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 2/20/2020, 9:25 AM
@TheJustinHammer - It depends really. We can imagine at this point, Luke is still busy finishing off the empire and helping to get the New Republic on its feet. Given the type of adventure Mando and the child are embarking on, it may be more organic for them to encounter Ahsoka on the outskirts of the galaxy.
lawndart
lawndart - 2/20/2020, 4:04 AM
Her age doesn't matter. Who knows what the average lifespan of her species would be? It's sci-fi so it could be anything.
Philvis
Philvis - 2/20/2020, 4:41 AM
Filoni better not have let those jack legs killed her off!
MotherGooseUPus
MotherGooseUPus - 2/20/2020, 6:51 AM
Deklipz
Deklipz - 2/20/2020, 8:03 AM
Dave Filoni has no business being in charge of anything timeline or overall plot related. Everything he does chips away at the emotional basis of the original trilogy just so he can service his own pet characters. Ashoka is a fun character, but this obsession with keeping his characters alive so he can continue to play with them is just stupid. He's more concerned with stroking his own creative ego than the property as a whole. The issue with Filoni is the exact same issue that the old EU had with it's authors. They're more tied to their own pet characters that the overall story and continuity suffer as a result. Filoni should have gone away with the EU.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 2/20/2020, 9:30 AM
@Deklipz - "Everything he does chips away at the emotional basis of the original trilogy just so he can service his own pet characters."

How? Clone Wars greatly enriched the characters of Anakin and Obi-wan as well as the overall narrative of how the Republic became the Empire.
Deklipz
Deklipz - 2/20/2020, 11:00 AM
@BIGBMH - I don't think he did much for the narrative that wasn't explicitly done in the movies. He gave Anakin and Obi some decent arcs but again, it feels more to service his own characters, such as ahsoka or even some of the droid generals, than it does to serve the overall narrative. Grievious is made to look like a complete and total fool in every encounter throughout the show save for one when he kills a completely inconsequential Jedi. Introducing and then keeping multiple force users around throughout the time of the original trilogy completely wipes out the entire emotional base of Luke/Leia being the last hope of defeating the empire. When episode 3 ended we had the weight of knowing that Yoda and Obi were the only ones that would be left at the beginning of the OT. Now we have god knows how many (pseudo)Jedi running around ACTIVE and known throughout the entirety of the timeline. The weight in the OT is from the failures of the past, both Jedi/Republic leaving that galaxy in a state of hopelessness. To the point that the LAST 2 Jedi were protecting what were the LAST (implied, if there were others, wtf did they need Luke and Leia for?) force users of significance. Ahsoka should have ied at the end of the Clone Wars or shortly thereafter bringing even more emotional weight to Vaders loneliness and tragedy, but nope. Filoni wants to keep his pets around forever because his ego won't let him use his characters to service the overall narrative.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 2/20/2020, 11:44 AM
@Deklipz - I do kind of agree with the sentiment of too many additional jedi running around during the OT era. However, none of them had the power to pose a real threat to Vader and Palpatine by means of sheer force. Luke and Leia were arguably the only hope due to their ability to appeal to the good in Anakin.

I disagree with the notion of servicing the "overall narrative" because I don't think that should be the primary objective. The Clone Wars is its own collection of worthwhile stories, not merely a companion piece meant to enhance the Skywalker Saga. Because it's not so focused on setup and relation to the OT, it's able to expand the world in more interesting ways than anything that has come since. The Night Sisters and Night Brothers, the culture and psychology of the clones themselves, the politics of the war and examination of how it effects soldiers, politicians, and ordinary citizens, etc. It's a rich tapestry of stories.

The show does more with its original characters because it has the room to place their pivotal story points within the span of the series. The vital turning points within Anakin and Obi-wan's lives are depicted within the films. We don't see any sort of major shifts in Obi-wan's personality from 2 to 3, so it'd be difficult to really send him on a pivotal journey within those 3 years. Even with that limitation, I think it does a very good job with them. Anakin is actually likable and his ethics are better painted than in the prequels. Obi-wan's past with Satine and conflict with Maul makes him interesting beyond his relationship to the Skywalkers.
Deklipz
Deklipz - 2/20/2020, 3:57 PM
@BIGBMH - I don’t necessarily disagree with your points about clone wars, but even as it’s own thing overall the things you mentioned still services the overall narrative, moreso than a lot of other ancillary stuff. And I don’t have a problem with it exploring and expanding other characters. I have a problem when those other characters are propped up unnecessarily. Also, yoda and obi wan we’re pretty damn clear in the OT that they were it. They weren’t waiting for someone who could take down Vader emotionally, that was just luck with Luke. There’s no reason that the 100 other Jedi Filoni has running around couldn’t have created a new order and overthrown the empire. It’s retarded.
BIGBMH
BIGBMH - 2/21/2020, 2:57 PM
@Deklipz - How many are actually active though?

Kanan - Not a factor by the time of the OT

Ezra - Honestly, I kind of wish they didn't introduce a jedi in training and just shifted focus to Sabine. But he's still MIA by the end of the war, so he wasn't around to help.

Ahsoka - Also MIA. Not clear what exactly she was doing after the temple or where she was, but it does seem like there's a plan.

Aside from those, how many have Clone Wars or Rebels confirmed to be around?
KindredMac
KindredMac - 2/20/2020, 8:16 AM
Filoni is the one true Star Wars Master.
GeneralZod
GeneralZod - 2/20/2020, 9:21 AM
Now that the smoke is starting to clear from Ep 9, and looking back ... damn, that last trilogy was so bad.
Ha1frican
Ha1frican - 2/20/2020, 9:38 AM
Dredd97
Dredd97 - 2/20/2020, 8:45 PM
That absolutes scene always killed me. Obi-Wan says "Only a Sith deals in absolutes." Which is in of itself an absolute...the prequel writing is so [frick]ing bad lol
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