The upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka has spent much of its marketing thus far showing that our titular former Jedi (played by Rosario Dawson) is teaming up with members of old Star Wars Rebels characters. But there’s one important character from Ahsoka’s past that hasn’t been discussed so far: her old master Anakin Skywalker, played again by Hayden Christensen. Up until this point, he’s only been vaguely referred to in Ahsoka’s previous live-action appearances—at least, until now.
If it’s been a while since you’ve seen Star Wars: The Clone Wars or Rebels, recall that the final season of Clone Wars in 2020 saw Ahsoka learn that Anakin was being groomed by Palpatine to slaughter the Jedi and turn to the Dark Side of the Force. But she couldn’t act on that information because Order 66 literally happened right as she realized that Darth Maul wasn’t bluffing. Like the other Jedi survivors, she had to go into hiding, and the two didn’t reunite until Anakin had been Darth Vader for over a decade and fought each other. Vader survived that fight, and Ahsoka was thought to have died before Ezra saved her through the World Between Worlds, which is also expected to play a huge role in this show.
So yeah, there’s a lot for Ahsoka the show to work with, and the new promo has Anakin all over it, from Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) bringing up his legendary status amongst the Jedi to his voiceover spread across the promo. None of the footage is terribly new, but it’s nice to see Anakin (and Christensen) again, and actually getting to interact with someone so important to him! Like with Obi-Wan Kenobi, it looks as though he’s going to be playing a vital role in the show through flashbacks, and maybe even old visions of the man he used to be. Whatever else he might do in the show will have to wait until Star Wars: Ahsoka releases August 23 on Disney+.
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