‘That lives on through this character’: Dave Filoni knew what he was doing with that key ‘Ahsoka’ character’s name

Hardcore Star Wars Rebels lovers had one of their biggest burning questions answered in the third episode of Ahsoka, once General Hera Syndulla’s son Jacen finally showed up after being absent in the two-part premiere. Jacen isn’t a character we know all that well, as he was only introduced in the epilogue to the Rebels finale, but as the child of both Hera, one of the New Republic’s leaders, and late Jedi Kanan Jarrus, he’s someone who could have a big impact on the franchise going forward.

Especially as his name hints at a potential devastating turn to the Dark Side in his future. As you might’ve picked up on by now, Jacen Syndulla evokes Jacen Solo, Han and Leia’s son from the Legends timeline who became the Sith Lord Darth Caedus. Ever since we learned Jacen’s loaded legacy name in 2018, fans have been fascinated to know if anything would come from this connection to the old Expanded Universe.

At the time, though, Rebels and Ahsoka co-creator Dave Filoni admitted that he knew what he was doing when he chose to christen the character Jacen. As he told Io9 while unpacking the Rebels finale:

“It seemed, in a very small way, naming him ‘Jacen’ was a way to honor the expanded universe character of Jacen Solo who just really isn’t there anymore as the timelines have changed,” Filoni said. “I thought that’s a little bit of a wink to people that I know that was an important character. And maybe, in some way, that lives on through this character. I don’t know yet.”

Filoni stressed in this interview that, at that point, he hadn’t exactly “given a lot of thought to where that goes,” but he did let slip that “I’m already getting asked internally a lot about it from people here [at Lucasfilm.” So clearly the studio was interested in making good on this fascinating seed he’d planted. Therefore it’s easy to assume that, half a decade later, Filoni and Lucasfilm may well have a more robust plan for Jacen, especially as both parties continue building out the Star Wars live-action TV universe.

As I’ve pitched before, Jacen has the potential to be a major new big bad for the Star Wars saga, perhaps even its next Kylo Ren, and thanks to Evan Whitten’s casting in Ahsoka, there’s even the perfect Hollywood A-lister just begging to play him. All I’m saying is, just watch this space.