'Ahsoka' Takes Disney's Star Wars in a New Direction
by EG
Star Wars fans who were hoping that Andor marked Disney's intention to take the Star Wars universe into a more grown-up, dramatic realm might be disappointed with Ahsoka, the latest Star Wars project from the studio. This new series foregoes the dramatic weight of the Andor series in favor of more traditional Star Warsian spectacle. Read on for details.
In Disney+’s Ahsoka, hulking vessels zip around space and dock and land on alien planets with an odd weightlessness, as if one could park on your foot and you’d never notice. Does this suggest an unfortunate limitation in the show’s special effects budget? A conscious effort to mimic the aesthetic of the series’ animated roots? An unconscious extended metaphor for a show that, at least through two of its eight episodes, too often suffers from a lack of dramatic gravity?
That’s not to say that Ahsoka is entirely without emotional heft, but most of that investment depends on familiarity with its predecessor, Star Wars Rebels (which aired from 2014 to 2018 on Disney XD). Viewers who haven’t watched Star Wars Rebels or the The Clone Wars -- or any of the stories featuring Ahsoka Tano before she first appeared in live-action form played by Rosario Dawson in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett -- won’t be confused. Series creator Dave Filoni has, especially in the premiere, piled on enough exposition to satisfy anybody with vague curiosity.
But that’s just being told about things, and for viewers who haven’t experienced those things in their original contexts, I’m guessing it will be hard to deeply invest in a series in which the biggest villain (nefarious Grand Admiral Thrawn), biggest inspirational figure (heroic Ezra Bridger) and biggest name in mythological lore (Anakin Skywalker) are initially just conversation points. It presents as a story of strong women who are defined primarily by all of these off-screen men, rather than being given any self-definition.
If I had to say what Ahsoka was about, on a bigger thematic level, it’s that if you don’t fully address the regrets and traumas of your past, you can’t forge a new future. But only hearing about these backstories cheapens the resonance. Take away any richness from narratives that unfolded over dozens of episodes, and you’re left with a series that’s primarily bland, albeit packed with potentially interesting characters, plus an exceptional anchoring performance from the late Ray Stevenson, whose charismatic presence here left me moved.
Stevenson actually gets the series’ first introduction as Baylan Skoll, a mysterious mercenary who stages a daring prison break with the help of his brooding apprentice (Ivanna Sakhno’s Shin Hati). Baylan insists that they’re not Jedi, but they wield lightsabers and he can definitely do Jedi stuff with his mind. Their target? Diana Lee Inosanto’s Morgan Elsbeth, who spends all her time talking about getting Grand Admiral Thrawn back from exile, presumably in the name of helping the Empire strike back again. So you know she’s bad news.
Meanwhile, Ahsoka (Dawson), the former Jedi who studied under Anakin Skywalker, is on a ruined desert planet doing Indiana Jones stuff in search of a hidden MacGuffin of some sort. The MacGuffin in question is a shiny orb that’s apparently a map to the location of Thrawn’s exile, or would be if Ahsoka could activate it. Ahsoka’s buddy, the very green General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), suggests the key to opening the map might be Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo), who was once Ahsoka’s apprentice — the show is very big on mentorship, especially flawed mentorship — before some type of stubbornness-based estrangement.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.