The kickoff panel on Saturday morning at Star Wars Celebration Europe 2023 highlighted Ahsoka, Dave Filoni’s upcoming Disney+ sequence scheduled to premiere in August. Shortly after the panel ended, Tricia Barr tweeted:

That significance didn’t go unnoticed within the broader protection. In its panel writeup, for instance, The Wrap famous that “When Rosario Dawson, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Mary Elizabeth Winstead took the stage for the ‘Ahsoka’ panel, it marked the primary time within the occasion’s 23-year historical past that three feminine leads have been showcased.”

It will be troublesome to overstate the significance of ladies to Ahsoka and the story it can inform. Rosario Dawson, who first appeared as Ahsoka’s titular character in a single episode every of The Mandalorian (Chapter 13) and The Ebook of Boba Fett (Chapter 6), credited Ashley Eckstein with constructing the character so properly over the span of seven seasons of The Clone Wars and an vital recurring position in Star Wars Rebels. Dawson defined that the animated sequence really feel like visible reminiscences she will be able to draw upon when performing Ahsoka in reside motion. Equally, Natasha Liu Bordizzo and Mary Elizabeth Winstead each additionally acknowledged Star Wars Rebels as indispensable analysis on their characters Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla, respectively. Winstead remarked that Hera is mainly everybody’s mother, which is an ideal description each of the character in Rebels and of fan-favorite Vanessa Marshall, who voiced Hera within the sequence.

Past these principal heroines, girls are outstanding all through the manufacturing. Diana Lee Inosanto, who dueled Dawson within the position of Morgan Elsbeth in The Mandalorian (Chapter 13), has been a fan since seeing Star Wars at age 11 and is thrilled to return for a significant position in Ahsoka. Newcomer Ivanna Sakhno performs Shin Hati, certainly one of two new lightsaber-wielding antagonists. All 5 actresses – in addition to Ray Stevenson, taking part in Baylan Skoll and seen dueling Ahsoka within the trailer – expressed uniformly excessive reward for Ming Qui, Ahsoka’s stunt and struggle coordinator. Her excessive expectations led everybody to work more durable and ship their finest in each scene. The Ahsoka trailer additionally confirmed an look by Genevieve O’Reilly, reprising her position as Mon Mothma.

Lastly, though Filoni wrote all eight episodes himself, Ahsoka’s slate of episodic administrators is half girls: Filoni (The Mandalorian Chapters 1, 5, 13 and The Ebook of Boba Fett Chapter 6), Rick Famuyiwa (The Mandalorian Chapters 2, 6, 15, 17, 23, 24), and Peter Ramsey (The Mandalorian Chapter 21) are joined by Steph Inexperienced (The Ebook of Boba Fett Chapter 2, Watchmen), Jennifer Getzinger (Mad Males, Agent Carter, Methods to Get Away with Homicide), and Geeta Patel (Sense8, Superstore, Home of the Dragon).

The franchise has taken us on fairly a journey for the reason that early days of FANgirl Weblog’s commentary and criticism of the therapy of feminine characters and feminine followers in Star Wars. At occasions it felt as if a day like this would possibly by no means come. To see it realized round a now-beloved character like Ahsoka Tano, shepherded by Dave Filoni, marked a day lengthy remembered. Maybe the one factor that might enhance upon it could be the reintroduction to Star Wars of one other fan-favorite feminine character who, like Grand Admiral Thrawn, additionally first appeared in Inheritor to the Empire.

Watch the Official Teaser Trailer for Ahsoka:

B.J. Priester has been a Star Wars fan since he performed with the unique Kenner motion figures as a younger boy. His fandom ardour returned after watching Assault of the Clones in 2002 and studying the complete New Jedi Order sequence in 2003. He voraciously caught up on the novels and comics within the Expanded Universe along with writing fanfiction, ceaselessly co-authoring with Tricia.

B.J. has served as editor of FANgirl Weblog from its inception, in addition to contributing opinions and posts on a spread of subjects. He edited Tricia’s novel Wynde, and is collaborating along with her on a number of future tasks set in that authentic universe.

At the moment a tenured legislation professor in Florida, B.J. has been a training lawyer in Washington, D.C., a legislation clerk to a federal appeals court docket decide, and a legislation journal editor-in-chief. He’s additionally a proud geek dad whose son who’s a giant fan of Star Wars and The Clone Wars.