You would almost forget, but it wasn’t that long ago Star Wars completely disappeared from the mainstream. After three unloved films about the slow evolution of the heroic Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker into the evil Sith master Darth Vader – with many dramatic special effects and wooden acting – even maker George Lucas had no interest in it anymore. Only the hard core of fans were hungry for more. So studio LucasFilm continued to do what it had been doing for decades: invest in an endless stream of games, books, comics and animated series – about Skywalker’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren on the one hand, previous dramatic star wars on the other, the so-called Star Wars Expanded Universe. The simple film fan quickly lost the thread, but it was not intended for him.
George Lucas was fine with it all, as long as he could put it aside. Only the animated series The Clone Wars (2008), in which his protégé Dave Filoni, among others, played an important writing role, received his blessing and his involvement. Main protagonist: the young alien Ahsoka Tano, student of Anakin Skywalker.
Even Disney couldn’t get rid of that figurehead of the larger Star Wars universe after the Star Wars takeover in 2012, which ended in a pruning of all those extras. With Filoni’s Ahsoka, the live-action series on Disney+ that ended last week, Disney seems to be giving up the fight against the ‘Expanded Universe’. The additional material is now being incorporated into series and films in the hopes of creating a universe as expansive and connected as Marvel’s superhero world.
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Confusion
In fact it is Ahsoka a sequel to animated series Rebelliouswhich is a successor to Clone Wars. In the final season of the gradually becoming more mature Rebellious young Jedi knight Ezra Bridger drags the hyper-intelligent, evil Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) to a distant galaxy. He leaves behind his fellow rebels, including his militant best friend Sabine Wren and the motherly pilot Hera Syndulla. Ahsoka begins when Ahsoka (played here by Rosario Dawson, who does her best with a script that only belatedly allows her warmth and humor) finds a map that leads to the system where Ezra and Thrawn ended up. Filoni might want to maneuver the characters in such a way that he can use Thrawn again for a film that takes place just after…
As you can tell, the explanation of the plot alone requires knowledge of so much Star Wars that it can easily confuse the viewer who has not seen an animated series or book. Especially because Filoni has been putting pieces of the Expanded Universe into its animated series for years, making it part of the ‘official’ Star Wars again – so Thrawn is the enemy from one of the most highly regarded Star Wars book series ever. Ahsoka puts those statements into terse asides. The viewer just has to come along – or not.
In the first two episodes, the tug-of-war between target groups is painfully palpable: explain or zoom in? The introduction of Sabine, for example, is as simple and thick as a children’s series. Characters talk a lot, do little, and are sometimes there simply because their presence in the animated series worked well. The confusion of Ahsoka is a stark contrast to what was loved by critics – but not the general public Andorwhich takes no insider information for granted and sticks to its own story as much as possible.
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Image Lucasfilm Ltd.
Esoteric aspects
Only when the series abandons any attempt to engage the mainstream viewer does it get going. In its strongest episode, “Shadow Warrior,” the series embraces its more esoteric sides Star Wars and delves into the relationship between Ahsoka and her now deceased master, Anakin. It’s this kind of reflection where this series is at its best – what does it mean to be a student of, what is the essence of the magical Force, and how beautiful are those unfathomable star whales? Meanwhile, Filoni happily sprinkles references to books, comics, games over everything. Both in word and in theme: when the charismatic bad guy Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) suddenly philosophizes about breaking the patterns that lead to endless wars between good and evil, the gamer immediately hears a similar character from the games speaking.
Unfortunately, the series lacks the finesse to both incorporate these ideas into the series and maintain a compelling structure. Many episodes search for a central story of their own, but fail with a few small actions and action scenes between all the reflections and references. The humor, especially provided by the sarcastic robot Huyang (David Tennant), is also just not sharp enough. In addition, the chemistry between actor Eman Esfandi (Ezra) and Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine) starts so slowly that everyone who Rebellious missed feels little emotion at their reunion.
Is Disney too eager to apply that tired Marvel formula here, or is Filoni a double agent trying to… Star Wars to snatch it out of Disney’s hands and give it back to the niche fan army? No idea. But if he wants to convince mainstream viewers of the value of this larger universe, he will have to try harder.