The newest live-action Star Wars show on Disney+ is Ahsoka, named for Ahsoka Tano – a former Jedi who fought in the Clone Wars and was once an apprentice to Anakin Skywalker.
Folks who have strictly stuck to live-action Star Wars content didn’t meet Ahsoka until she popped up in Season 2 of The Mandalorian. As he tries to reunite Grogu with other Jedi, Din Djarin finds Ahsoka (played by Rosario Dawson) on the planet of Corvus where she’s fighting Imperial remnants and trying to pin down the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn. Viewers saw Ahsoka once more in live-action – in The Book of Boba Fett – where she watches Luke Skywalker begin to build a new Jedi Temple.
But fans of the animated Star Wars shows, The Clone Wars and Rebels, have known Ahsoka for quite a while. Ahsoka was created by Dave Filoni and George Lucas as they were working together on the animated film Star Wars: The Clone Wars and the television show that followed and ran from 2008 through 2020, and she is voiced by the great Ashley Eckstein.
While Ahsoka makes her first appearance in the animated Clone Wars film, it’s not required viewing; it’s The Clone Wars show – and later, its successor Rebels – where fans see her character fully fleshed out and developed. Over the course of these two animated shows, viewers see Ahsoka grow up, wield a pair of lightsabers, befriend Clone Troopers, join a band of rebels, follow and lead, and clash with foes both big and small, familiar and unfamiliar.
Before you watch Ahsoka – or perhaps while you’re watching it – here are the essential episodes of The Clone Wars and Rebels you should check out to get to know who Ahsoka Tano is and what she’s been through.