Ahsoka potential release date, cast and everything you need to know

Lightsabers at the ready – Ahsoka Tano is officially getting her own Disney+ series as the Star Wars universe continues to expand.

The female-centric Star Wars series was confirmed following the character's live-action debut in The Mandalorian season two. She first became a fan favourite during the animated series Clone Wars.

But what's to come for the former Jedi padawan, and how involved will her former mentor, Anakin Skywalker, be in the latest story?

Here's everything you need to know...

Ahsoka potential release date: When will Ahsoka air?

Disney+ officially confirmed that Ahsoka will premiere in August 2023, but we'll have to wait for a more precise release date.

Production on Ahsoka officially began on May 9, 2022, with news coming when the streaming platform's official Twitter account posted a picture of the director's chair on set, along with the caption: "Ahsoka, an Original series, starts production today #DisneyPlus."

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Speaking about how production was going in August 2022, series creator Dave Filoni told Comicbook.com: "Oh, it's fantastic. I mean, it's everything I could hope for. I never dreamed of [running a live-action series] as I was learning over the years.

"But to have a character that's just come up over the years with a lot of fans as they've grown up and now she's at the point where we can do this, it's wonderful to be this same person guiding it across the different mediums, I think lends a consistency to the character that's very uncommon."

In September 2022, Dawson gave fans another update, and revealed that they only had a couple of months of filming left.

"Yes, we're still filming it right now. We just have a couple months left. It's going great. It's really amazing learning martial arts in my 40s," she told Screen Rant.

"It's super amazing, and I don't use that word very lightly. My grandmother used to say, 'Amazing is two blue horses,' if you ever said something was amazing. Because it'd be like, 'No, amazing is two blue horses. That pizza slice probably isn't amazing.'"

In March 2023, Filoni discussed the post-production process on Ahsoka with The Hollywood Reporter, and gave us some cautiously optimistic news.

"I'm really enjoying it," Filoni said. "It's something that I never thought I would be doing, as much as I've done all these different things over the years with Star Wars. Writing and directing and collaborating on this type of thing with so many people is just the top of the mountain for me at this point.

"There's a lot of work to be done, but I have an incredibly talented team all around me supporting it. So I'm cautiously optimistic," he added. "But the fans will let me know. They always do."

In the meantime, at least there's plenty of Star Wars content to tide us over. This includes a third season of The Mandalorian, which just wrapped up with an epic episode.

Ahsoka cast: Who's joining Rosario Dawson?

Naturally, we already know that Rosario Dawson will be taking the lead in this new series, with Ahsoka having to deal with being a "hardened" version of herself after a personal tragedy.

Explaining what it's like taking on the monumental task, Dawson told Vanity Fair: "I love that she is this wanderer character who is going to just do good in the universe. The Jedi Order has disappeared in many ways, it's so fractured, and so many people are targeted.

"Since the very beginning, the way that has been pulling her is to be vigilant, and to be brave, and to be wise, and to always have her eye set on rooting out evil."

She added: "And I think that's one of the reasons why so many love her. It's why I love her. She represents truly the best of the Jedi, you know?"

Hayden Christensen has also been confirmed to be appearing on the show as Anakin Skywalker – the man who will be Darth Vader.

Seeing as the show is set after Vader's death, it seems he will appear in flashbacks, which makes sense considering Anakin was Ahsoka's original Jedi master before she became a rebel and fought against him.

Christensen also appeared in Obi-Wan – but this took place a lot earlier than Ahsoka.

The Society star Natasha Liu Bordizzo is also joining the cast as Sabine Wren. First featured in Star Wars: Rebels, Sabine is a young Mandalorian and Imperial Academy dropout with expertise in weaponry and explosives.

Pacific Rim: Uprising star Ivanna Sakhno has also been cast in the series in an undisclosed role.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead will also join the series, according to Variety. Winstead is an interesting choice, with a tenuous connection to the Star Wars universe (she's married to Ewan McGregor) and she is set to play fan favourite Hers Syndulla.

Just don't expect a crossover with Disney's Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which takes place 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, as Kathleen Kennedy confirmed to EW.

"We're looking, ultimately, to make a hopeful, uplifting story, said Kennedy. "And it's tricky when you're starting with a character in the state that Obi-Wan would be in coming off of Revenge of the Sith. That's a pretty bleak period of time.

"You can't just wave the magic wand with any writer and arrive at a story that necessarily reflects what you want to feel."

Ahsoka is set after Return of the Jedi, so unless there are some timey-wimey shenanigans, don't expect a family reunion for Winstead and McGregor.

Variety also revealed that Ray Stevenson has joined the cast. Stevenson has Disney pedigree, appearing in the MCU as Volstagg, Thor's mate.

But, more significantly, Stevenson also has Star Wars experience. Stevenson appeared as Gar Saxon, a Mandalorian commando, in both Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels. However, slightly confusingly, Stevenson will not be reprising his role from Rebels, but instead will play a Jedi gone bad known only as Baylan Skoll.

Eman Esfandi has landed the role of Ezra Bridger, and even though the beloved astromech called Chopper appeared in the first trailer, we don't know whether Filoni will be voicing him again.

Ahsoka plot: What will happen?

Filoni has been carrying the plot for Ahsoka around in his head for a while now, and he was excited to finally get it down on paper.

"It's thrilling, I gotta tell you," Filoni told Empire. "It's something you imagine doing for a long time. And then it's kind of startling when you're sitting there, and now you have to do it. I thought of this adventure for Ahsoka for a long time, and it's interesting to see how it's evolved.

"Years ago, I never would have imagined that it was sprung from a branch of a tree that had anything to do with a guy [like] Din Djarin, or a child that looks like Yoda. It's a great lesson for me on how, when you have other creatives like Jon Favreau, they can help lend such dimension and depth to what you're doing."

Little is known about Ahsoka and what the actual plot will entail, but Star Wars bosses have confirmed it will be set "within the timeline of The Mandalorian".

"She is, for lack of a term, a master, because she's largely an independent at this point," Filoni told Vanity Fair. "A wandering samurai character is what she really is at this point. I've always made comparisons to her heading toward the Gandalf stage, where she is the one that has the knowledge of the world and can help others through it. I think she's reached that point."

And he's proud of the evolution of the character. "We saw her basically hit the scene as a padawan: young, and naïve, and brash, and aggressive. Then, in Rebels, she's more of a traditional knight, trying to figure out how to fight a war.

"There's a lot of hesitation around what she wants to be and who she can be and how her life's been guided. I think that now I've taken that a step further. When you see this version of the character, she's world-weary from everything that she's experienced and lived through. She's seen so much happen in her time."

"She's lost so much. She had left that Order under duress, and she's just been finding her way," Dawson agreed.

When Tano first appeared in The Mandalorian's 'Chapter 13: The Jedi', she helped a downtrodden village that was being ruled by tyrannical Magistrate Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto).

It turned out that Elsbeth's connection to the Empire – having helped build the Imperial Navy – also made her privy to the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Ahsoka's motives were finally revealed when she demanded Elsbeth tell the Jedi where her "master" is.

Following the cliffhanger ending of Star Wars Rebels, there have been questions about what happened to Thrawn and Ezra Bridger. Director Dave Filoni confirmed the pair were both alive, while the end of Rebels featured Tano and Mandalorian Sabine Wren heading out into the unknown to find their friend and presumably take out Thrawn for good.

The idea of Rebels continuing in live-action had been floated before. Filoni even hinted as much when he defended the show's finale.

Speaking to EW, Filoni reiterated: "I've always felt the best stories end and then other stories begin, and there's no better way to take two of my favourite characters and have them ride off into the sunset, like I've seen so many cowboys over the years, or Indiana Jones… One thing ends and another begins, and the story continues. That's a saga."

But if you haven't seen Rebels – or, indeed, Clone Wars – don't worry, Filoni doesn't expect you to do homework before checking out Ahsoka (via IGN).

"I think that as much as these shows are tangential to one another and in the same time period, I think it's important that you can watch them on their own," he said.

"So, in the same way that if you've seen the episode, 'The Jedi', in The Mandalorian… You're going to get a little bonus like, 'Oh, I understand what's going on from the get-go.'

"But you're still going to understand what's going on because we picked up A New Hope at episode four. So Star Wars to us…we came in the middle of it. So there is a kind of history in Star Wars of just diving right into the story.

"So I really do dive right into the story with Ahsoka. But I know more about it because of the work of Mandalorian."

He continued: "We never want to create a situation where you feel like you have to have seen these things because then you're missing out. I don't know how fans feel, but if you have to have seen Clone Wars to understand Ahsoka... No. You don't have to have seen that.

"Does it help? Will you know more and understand more? Sure. If you haven't checked it out, you can, thanks to Disney Plus. It's right there."

Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter in September 2022, Dawson seemed upset about approaching the end of shooting the first season. "It's already getting sad because it's almost over." But she ended on an optimistic note, adding: "Hopefully, we’ll get a sequel!"

That's fascinating for a couple of reasons. One, it sounds like it doesn’t end on a cliffhanger – if there's any doubt about a second season, that means the narrative is relatively complete.

And second, if another season isn't already confirmed, that means Disney is playing its sabacc cards close to its chest – waiting to see what the fan response is before hitting the hyperdrive button. Still, at least Dawson enjoyed making Ahsoka enough to want more – hopefully, that's a good sign.

Ahsoka trailer: When can I watch it?

Now that Ahsoka has a release window, we have a trailer, which you can see at the top of this article – giving us a first look at Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Hera Syndulla and Natasha Liu Bordizzo's Sabine Wren.

First premiered at Star Wars Celebration in April 2023, we also got to see Ray Stevenson as Baylan, and a returning character from Andor and Rogue One.

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Tom Chapman

Tom Chapman is a pop culture-loving writer and NCTJ-accredited Broadcast Journalist with over seven years of experience covering the small and silver screen. 

Starting his career with a post at Movie Pilot in Berlin, Tom took on freelancing full-time with regular stints at Digital Spy, Screen Rant and Comic Book Resources.

These days, you can still find him covering all things Marvel and Star Wars at Digital Spy, while dipping his toe in bylines at Yahoo! and IGN. 

Tom likes to think his spirit animal is a cross between Gale Weathers and Olenna Tyrell.

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