Many Star Wars stories center on the Force and the Jedi who wield it. A master teaches an apprentice. Then that apprentice grows and learns and eventually becomes a master, continuing the cycle. A new behind-the-scenes featurette for Ahsoka emphasizes that legacy. It looks at the teachers and students we’ve known over the years. Qui-Gon Jinn trained Obi-Wan Kenobi, Obi-Wan taught Anakin Skywalker, and Anakin was Ahsoka Tano’s master. In the upcoming Star Wars live-action series, Ahsoka is Sabine’s teacher. The below video explores Ahsoka’s origins in Star Wars: The Clone Wars and her journey to live-action. Series executive producer Dave Filoni says, “I’m telling this story about this mentor-student relationship that passes from Anakin to Ahsoka to Sabine.”
We’ve seen in trailers for Ahsoka that Sabine wields Ezra Bridger’s lightsaber. Kanan Jarrus trained her to use the Darksaber, so she’s not unfamiliar with the weapon. Ahsoka goes to Lothal to ask for Sabine’s help in the search for Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra. Sabine references that Ahsoka never made things easy for her and calls Ahsoka “master.” It makes us wonder what happened with Ahsoka and Sabine between the ending of Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka. Has Ahsoka been training Sabine in the ways of the Jedi? Will the series explore what it’s like to be a Jedi without the ability to use the Force? Perhaps Sabine is Force-sensitive. We’ll get answers when the Star Wars series premieres, of course, but this featurette has us eager to know how the Ahsoka and Sabine master and apprentice relationship continues that particular Star Wars legacy.
The Ahsoka featurette also talks about a different mentor-student pair: George Lucas and Dave Filoni. It shows how Lucas worked with Filoni to develop Ahsoka as Anakin’s Padawan and then later visited the set while Filoni directed Ahsoka the character in live-action. The footage shows how Rosario Dawson brings Ahsoka to the screen in a way that honors all the animated appearances, in which Ashley Eckstein voiced the character, that came before.
Ahsoka premieres its first two episodes on Disney+ on August 23.