Disney and Lucasfilm wouldn’t have announced that Ahsoka Tano was going to appear in The Mandalorian if they didn’t have big plans for her, with the fan-favorite Clone Wars character one of the names that folks have been clamoring for to make the jump to live-action for years. When they finally got their wish though, it split them right down the middle, with just as many people seemingly happy with Rosario Dawson’s casting as there were those upset that voice actress Ashley Eckstein wasn’t given the opportunity to continue in the role that she made her own.
Outgoing Disney CEO Bob Iger has previously admitted that the world of The Mandalorian is being designed and expanded with one eye on creating spinoffs and solo shows for both old and new faces, and given her popularity with the Star Wars fanbase, it seems more than likely that Ahsoka will be one of the first to get her own series green-lit, especially with a recognizable name like Rosario Dawson in the lead.
Given the highly-publicized creative, critical and commercial troubles that have greeted the recent Star Wars movies, the immediate future of the franchise looks to be on the small screen, making Ahsoka Tano an ideal candidate to lead her own spinoff. In fact, we previously reported that Darth Vader could be set to appear in flashbacks to their battle that occurred in the season 2 finale of Rebels, and now we’ve heard that another iconic villain from a galaxy far, far away could also be set to make a surprise appearance.
According to our intel – which comes from the same sources who told us about Ahsoka’s role in The Mandalorian months before it was officially confirmed, and that [SPOILERS] would be revealed as a traitor in The Rise of Skywalker – these flashbacks are also set to include Emperor Palpatine. Details on what exactly we’d see in them remain unclear, and while the two do have an established connection in canon due to their links to Anakin, most fans probably feel that after the reception to the aforementioned Rise, it would probably be for the best if Palpatine was left out of Star Wars altogether.
After all, what the franchise needs now is fresh faces and a new direction, instead of desperately clinging onto the Original Trilogy and loading everything full of fan service. But we’re told that Lucasfilm still has big plans for the iconic big bad and that the Ahsoka Tano show will just be one of several places that we’ll be seeing him pop up in over the next few years.
