I’ve complained about the way Star Wars will tease details in the movies without fully exploring them, as if their ultimate goal is to get you to read the Wookiepedia entry (I often fall down that rabbit hole) or buy some tie-in novel for the full story. Well, it’s sorta happening again, except in this case I think we may eventually get the whole story on the big screen or a Disney+ series, and it involves the missing fan-favorite character, Ahsoka Tano.
You may recall that just days ahead of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, director JJ Abrams teased Ahsoka Tano would be in the movie. Well, he wasn’t lying. It just wasn’t the way fans would’ve hoped. We never actually saw her on screen, but she was among the many Jedi whose voice was heard by Rey as she connected with the Force and the “thousand generations of Jedi” who helped her defeat the Emperor. Other voices heard included Mace Windu, Luke Skywalker, Yoda, Anakin Skywalker, Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan Kenobi, Luminara Unduli, Kanan Jarrus, Adi Gallia, and Aayla Secura. What do they have in common? They’re all dead. And that would seem to include Ahsoka Tano, as well. I mean, why wouldn’t it?
Well, Star Wars Rebels and The Mandalorian mastermind Dave Filoni may be suggesting otherwise. He dropped the below image featuring Ahsoka Tano alongside Lord of the Rings‘ wizard Gandalf, who reminds her that he was thought dead once, too, but came back to save the day…
Filoni is one of the most integral pieces in shaping the future of Star Wars, so if he’s got something up his sleeve it’s a good idea to take it seriously. That said, it would take a lot of explaining why she, of all of the powerful Jedi who perished and became Force Ghosts in Rey’s vision, is the only one to still be alive. The exiled Jedi-in-training was never fully part of their Order, and last we saw of her she was going off with Sabine Wren to find the missing Ezra Bridger. That would be in the final episode of Star Wars Rebels, taking place about 14-15 years after Return of the Jedi. Unless she was killed at some point, she should still be alive. My guess is Filoni is just messing with us, and when we see Tano again it’ll be part of the newly-revived The Clone Wars series, which returns in 2020.
