Star Wars: Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker releases in 4 days and J.J. Abrams, the director of the film, keeps hinting at what to expect in the last moments of the Skywalker saga.
Possible Spoilers for Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker, The Clone Wars, and Rebels Follow
Abrams was in Japan promoting The Rise of Skywalker and during the interview with Japanese news source Sora News, Abrams made a tease connecting his film to the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars series.
The interviewer from Sora News asked Abrams who his favorite Star Wars character is to which he replied ‘Han Solo’. Abrams then reversed the question on the interviewer who said that theirs was Ahsoka Tano, which Abrams responded by saying that it might be a good idea to watch closely during the film.
For those remaining few Star Wars fans who don’t know who Ahsoka is, she was the Jedi Padawan of Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. She was created by Dave Filoni and George Lucas for the Clone Wars’ feature film, where she was almost universally reviled.
However, she quickly became a fan-favourite character over the duration of The Clone Wars and even returned in Rebels after having left the Jedi Order during the first show’s tenure.
With this hint comes two questions. The first is whether or not Ahsoka is directly in the film, making Ahsoka the second Clone Wars character to be given the live-action treatment, after Saw Guerra in Rogue One.
The second question is whether or not it will just be an Easter egg, maybe with her simply being referenced by someone in the movie. In that scenario, the only character in this new film with direct ties to Ahsoka would be Sidious/Palpatine.
During Rebels, Ezra Bridger saves Ahsoka from Darth Vader during their duel inside the Sith temple, using the World between Worlds portals. Directly after Ezra saves Ahsoka, Sidious finds them, directly tying him into knowing about the World between Worlds which is a leading theory on how Sidious survived since he didn’t need a special temple to get through the portal like Ezra.
Since it comes from directly from J.J. Abrams, it might be in the best interests for any big animated Star Wars fans to keep their eyes peeled for any subtle connections to the larger lore of Star Wars.
Do you want to see Ahsoka in Rise of Skywalker? Let us know all your thoughts in the comments below!