Everything to Know About Ahsoka Tano Before You Watch ‘Ahsoka’

Of all Disney+’s live-action Star Wars offerings, Ahsoka might be the least accessible to fans who haven’t seen the animated shows. The Clone Wars and Rebels aren’t always high on a live-action fan’s priority list, but they’ve offered some of the best storytelling in Star Wars—and now, they’re also serving as the basis for the upcoming Ahsoka.

Ahsoka plays a major role in both animated shows, and knowing what happened to her in them will undoubtedly be essential to understanding her new show. If you’re not planning to binge-watch both before August 23, here’s what you need to know about Rosario Dawson’s character.

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Ahsoka in Animation

Wait, Anakin had a padawan? He sure did. Ahsoka Tano first appeared in the 2008 animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars, where Ashley Eckstein voiced her. Ahsoka and Anakin (voiced by Matt Lanter) shared impulsivity and a tendency to fight first and ask questions later, making them a chaotic, effective team. They formed a strong bond throughout her years of training. That bond was tested after Ahsoka was framed for bombing the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. (The crime was actually committed by her fellow padawan and friend Barriss Offee [voiced by Meredith Salenger], who may or may not make her live-action debut in Ahsoka). While the masters offered Ahsoka the chance to return as a Jedi, a betrayed and heartbroken Ahsoka ultimately chose to leave, a Jedi no more. She reunited with her master briefly in the show’s seventh season, just before he turned to the Dark Side. But when Ahsoka says she “walked away from him” about Anakin in the trailers for Ahsoka, she’s referencing her departure from the Jedi Order.

During Order 66, Ahsoka survived by having Captain Rex’s (voiced by Dee Bradley Baker) inhibitor chip removed. While she was no longer technically a Jedi by that point, her quick thinking saved her from the fate of so many other Force users who their clone comrades killed. (We’ll have to stay tuned to see whether Temuera Morrison appears as Rex in live-action.) Ahsoka next appeared in Star Wars: Rebels, where she served as one of the “Fulcrum” agents aiding the rebellion’s fight against the Empire. Her time with the Ghost crew eventually led her and the rest of the group to the Sith planet Malachor V. While they were there, Ahsoka realized that Anakin had not died with the rest of the Jedi. She fought Darth Vader, bravely allowing her friends on the Ghost to escape, and it appeared she’d died in the battle. But…

Ezra Bridger (voiced by Taylor Gray), the young Jedi she’d helped Kanan Jarrus (voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr.) train, saved her by going back in time, in a way. Ezra went through the World Between Worlds in the final episodes of Rebels, an alternate plane in the Force where all moments in time occur and are accessible. There, Ezra rescued Ahsoka before Vader could kill her, saving her life and paving the way for her future live-action appearances.

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Ashoka in Live-Action

We’ve now seen Rosario Dawson portray Ahsoka in two live-action series: The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. Her first appearance came in The Mandalorian, where she helped Din (Pedro Pascal) liberate a village from its corrupt magistrate, Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto). She vanquished but didn’t kill Elsbeth, and, holding the magistrate at lightsaber-point, she asked a question certain to make Star Wars fans everywhere feel faint with excitement: “Where is Grand Admiral Thrawn?” Thrawn, too, is set to appear in Ahsoka; he’s being played by Lars Mikkelsen, who voiced him in Star Wars: Rebels.

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Ultimately, Ahsoka refused to train Grogu because he’d grown too attached to Din, and she’d seen what attachments could do to a Jedi as powerful as Anakin. She next appeared in The Book of Boba Fett, where she’d volunteered to help Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) get his Jedi Academy running. Ahsoka again warned Din against connecting with Grogu because to become a Jedi, Grogu would need to break his bond with Din. Of course, that didn’t matter much in the end—Grogu returned to Din anyway, and Ahsoka left Luke’s school to further her mission.

What is that mission? From what we’ve seen in the trailers, it appears Ahsoka’s trying to track down both Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, who were last seen together on Thrawn’s ship, the Chimaera. Ezra and Thrawn both vanished after Ezra called forth the purrgil—space whales with the ability to travel long distances through space—to eliminate Thrawn from the galaxy, and no one knows where he or the red-eyed Chiss ended up. It seems likely Ahsoka will answer those questions—and pose many of its own. One thing we know: the Force is always with Ahsoka Tano.

Ahsoka, Series Premiere, Wednesday, August 23, Disney+