‘Peak ‘Star Wars’ content’: An unexpected ‘Ahsoka’ spin-off hits Disney Plus while ‘Mandalorian’ season 4 hangs in the balance

What’s all the rage on Disney Plus these days? The new Percy Jackson series, which might erase the sins of the OG adaptation, and Marvel’s What If? season 2, right? Nope. Because during the wee hours of Dec. 22, 2023, a new Star Wars special, featuring the best character from Ahsoka, was dropped on Disney Plus.

Now, there are plenty of Star Wars projects in the work and they all are, more or less, confirmed or at least rooted in some very solid rumors. There are whispers of a Mandalorian film, the upcoming series like Star Wars Skeleton Crew, The Acolyte, Taika Waititi’s Star Wars movie, and a lot more. What has been keeping the zealous followers of the galaxy far, far away is how Pedro Pascal (Mando) and everyone else associated with the show keep dancing around the confirmation of his return as Din Djarin amid rumors that he is done with the show for good.

Evidently, Lucasfilm sensed the trepidation and probably thought that what we need to truly soothe our frayed nerves is 2 hrs, 5 minutes, and 52 seconds of just watching Sabine’s loth cat, Murley — whom we first met in Ahsoka — sleep on a countertop while different Star Wars themes played in the background.

Yep, I am not kidding. You can hop on Disney Plus right now to check it out or check out Disney Plus’ proudly announcing the latest additions to its library, which also contains Ahsoka: Sabine’s Loth-Cat. 

So, this is a gift of sorts for those who dearly missed Murley, were worried about what happens to the adorable loth-cat while Sabine is stuck in a whole other galaxy and Ezra embarks on his own adventures, and also missed out on Dave Filoni reassuring fans that he is all right, having fun with other loth-cats, and is not stuck in the Mandalorian warrior’s tower in her absence.

Seeing as we never really got the Baby Yoda special we have been requesting [re: demanding], this could be seen as a gift for ardent admirers of the exceptionally adorable creatures Star Wars is home to. And of course, there is no denying that even though watching Murley sleep serves no logical purpose, it is a lot better than the franchise’s many glaring errors.

But remember, Disney, in its ongoing attempt to merge Hulu and Disney Plus, just amped up the subscription price. Offering 2 hours of Star Wars Lofi is understandably not sitting right with disgruntled viewers who have pointed out how the special now has a place on the streamer while many of the wrongfully purged shows from the streamer are still not available to watch anywhere.

Now, no matter how overwhelmingly cute Murley is, that is a valid point. The last argument is backed up by the fact that the “special” first aired live on YouTube, in a whopping 11-hour version, back in October, when the final episode of Ahsoka was released. So, Disney saw it fit to release Sabine’s Loth-Cat on the streamer even as it continues to delete content from its platform without so much as a warning? We better mull over that thought as Murley soundly sleeping to Sabine’s Star Wars theme runs in the background.