Like Storm Troopers from Star Wars, Lucasfilm seems to have more misses than hits in recent years.
Their recent works from Solo: A Star Wars Story brought in under 393 million dollars at the box office to Willow, based on a 1988 cult fantasy movie of the same name. Disney revealed that it spent 105.9 million dollars to create Willow. But just after six months, the series was dropped from its streaming platform.
A bright spot for Disney+/Lucasfilm has been their new series Ahsoka on Disney+.
The eight-part live-action series is a direct follow-up to the animated series Star Wars: Rebels by Dave Filoni. The Rebels series followed the starship crew of the Ghost: The pilot Hera; Kanan, her love interest, a Jedi who survived the Purge.
Their alien friend and muscle Zeb, Ezra, an orphan who becomes Kanan’s Jedi Padawan (student), and Sabine Wren, a Mandalorian artist and the droid Chopper. Ahsoka, who was Anakin Skywalker’s padawan or student Jedi during the Clone Wars series, recruits Hera and her team to form one of the first rebel cells against the evil galactic empire.
Ahsoka picks up right where Rebels left off with a missing Ezra and the antagonist, imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn, banished to another galaxy. The new series follows Ahsoka and the Mandalorian Sabine on a quest to find Ezra and stop Thrawn from returning and rebuilding the banished Empire.
This is Dave Filoni’s first time leading a live-action series; this may have contributed to why the editing in the first few episodes is slower.
Another contributing factor is not being familiar with the story of Rebels and Clone Wars could be lost on how the characters are connected. Filoni spends little to no time on how the characters relate to one another.
Dave Filoni shines the brightest, however, in his storytelling. After all, he was the showrunner for the critically acclaimed Clone Wars series for seven seasons and Rebels for four. He is also a master of Star Wars lore.
In his past work, he used his knowledge to bring together memorable characters and stories like fan favorites Darth Vader, Thrawn, and Tarkin. Another example of his deep Star Wars lore is bringing in the Night Sisters, a band of force-using witches. Their inclusion in Ahsoka has the potential to be a formidable foe for Ahsoka and a deadly ally to Thrawn.
Another positive for the Ahsoka series has been the musical scores. The music of Star Wars is one of its distinguishing factors. Kevin Kiner is an Emmy-nominated and Annie Award-winning composer who continues to bring his talent to the Star Wars universe. His musical scores help fill our emotions during the rise and fall of what we visually see on screen.
Ahsoka series promises to be packed with more Star Wars action and with rumors of a second season already underway and an eventual follow-up movie.
