Dave Filoni Was Developing ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ Live-Action Long Before ‘The Mandalorian’

What came first – the chicken or the egg? Or in this case, Star Wars: Ahsoka or The Mandalorian? Well, according to Dave Filoni, it was Ahsoka.

The highly anticipated Ahsoka series is releasing on Disney+ very soon on 23 August. Set during the same time as The Mandalorian season three, the series sees the titular character, played by Rosario Dawson, reunite with Mandalorian warrior  Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Borzizzo) to search for an Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfadi).

The Ahsoka series marks the Tortuga’s first solo outing after making brief appearances in The Mandalorian and apparently has been in development for a long time. In fact, before The Mandalorian itself.

In an EPK interview conducted before the WGA-AFTRA strike, series creator Filoni revealed that he was working on a live-action Ahsoka Tano series during his Rebels days.

“Ahsoka made her live-action debut in Episode 13 of The Mandalorian. I had been developing a live-action Ahsoka project before The Mandalorian began when I was still working on Rebels. The next instalment of the character had always been on my mind, and I wanted to do it in live action,” said Filoni.

Filoni did not explain why Ahsoka was delayed and why The Mandalorian was released first, but it seems like the order of release does not affect the overall story of Ahsoka. The creator emphasised that Ahsoka is a continuation of the character’s journey thus far and will explore her relationships with others in ways that have not been seen before in her past appearances in The Mandalorian, Rebels and even The Clone Wars.

“It’s a continuation, but you don’t need to have seen The Clone Wars to enjoy the story. Hopefully, if I’ve done my job well, this story is clear, and you relate to the characters and their relationships,” added Filoni.

“There’ll be things that will surprise the audience about Sabine and Ahsoka’s relationship that they don’t know and that you won’t see anywhere in any story prior to this.”

Filoni has been telling Ahsoka Tano’s story for over 20 years and hopes that fans will come to love her as much as he does.

“We’ve always tried to write her in a timeless fashion. She’s an adult now, but her past gives us a look into her behaviour and why she is the way she is. It has been a long road in evolving her from Anakin’s young padawan, and she has grown from there into quite a special character in her own right,” said Filoni.

“We wanted kids to follow her character and see the choices she makes. She’s not perfect; she’s flawed. She had a lot to learn. The more stories we tell, the more we start to take up all this space in her life, so I keep trying to find ways to make her story full and exciting. I have been telling her story for almost twenty years, which is hard to believe.”

Ahsoka premieres on Disney+ on 23 August. Here’s all you need to know before catching the series.