Star Wars: Ahsoka Tano Spinoff and Rangers of the New Republic TV Shows Announced for Disney Plus

It’s official: Disney has announced an Ahsoka Tano live-action TV show starring Rosario Dawson after her debut on The Mandalorian, as well as another new series titled Rangers of the New Republic that will likely feature Cara Dune and other characters introduced in The Mandalorian. The news was announced at Disney’s annual investor day presentation on Dec. 10.Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy said that both shows are set within the timeline of the Mandalorian. These shows, along with The Mandalorian, will culminate in a “climactic story event.” The next chapter will debut on Disney+ Christmas 2021.

During an earnings call in August, former Disney boss Bob Iger revealed that developing a Star Wars TV universe anchored by The Mandalorian and its spinoffs was top of mind for the studio: “The priority in the next few years is television, with The Mandalorian Season 2 coming in October and then more coming from The Mandalorian thereafter, including the possibility of infusing it with more characters and the possibility of taking those characters in their own direction in terms of series.”

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Rumors of an Ahsoka Tano spinoff TV series have been swirling since Dawson’s role was first reported, with many speculating that her appearance on The Mandalorian would serve as a backdoor pilot to launch her into her own adventure.

Ahsoka Tano has a long and storied history in the Star Wars universe, having debuted in Dave Filoni’s animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars movie as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice before going on to become the heart (and conscience) of the subsequent Clone Wars series, and also a key player in Star Wars Rebels, which took place during the timeframe of the Original Trilogy. Voiced in animation by Ashley Eckstein (who also made a voice cameo as Ahsoka in The Rise of Skywalker), the character made her live-action debut in the form of Dawson in episode 5 of The Mandalorian Season 2.

As we saw in that episode, titled “The Jedi,” Ahsoka was on the hunt for Grand Admiral Thrawn, a villain well known to fans of the Star Wars Expanded Universe and Star Wars Rebels. Since Thrawn was last seen with Rebels’ Jedi hero Ezra Bridger, fans have theorized that Ahsoka’s hunt for Thrawn is ultimately a hunt for Ezra, and that Filoni and Jon Favreau could be seeding a spinoff series that could serve as a sequel to Star Wars Rebels through the plot of The Mandalorian.

Essential Ahsoka Tano Stories to Watch (and Read)

The Mandalorian has been laying the foundations for Gina Carano’s Cara Dune to lead her own Mandalorian spinoff series, after she was enlisted to be a peacekeeping Marshal of the New Republic on Nevarro by Captain Carson Teva in Season 2, episode 4, when the X-Wing pilot observed that something fishy is afoot in the Outer Rim with the remnants of the Empire continuing to amass power even after the fall of Palpatine. A New Republic spinoff seems like an effective way to expand the worldbuilding and political landscape of the post-Return of the Jedi time period without needing to derail The Mandalorian’s more self-contained, quest-based story structure.

Disney has already been investing heavily in Star Wars TV shows even outside of The Mandalorian – an Obi-Wan Kenobi standalone series starring Ewan McGregor (who donned the costume again on the Mandalorian set) is in development, and the Disney Investor presentation revealed that Hayden Christensen will return as Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan series, which is set 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith.

We also got an update on the Rogue One prequel series starring Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor, including a behind-the-scenes first look at Andor, new casting announcements, and a 2022 release window. Animated Clone Wars sequel series The Bad Batch debuted the first trailer, which you can watch below, and we got a title and plot details for the mysterious female-centric live-action series from Russian Doll’s Leslye Headland, which is titled The Acolyte and set in “the final days of the High Republic era.”

Kathleen Kennedy also announced that Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins will direct a new Star Wars movie titled Rogue Squadron, while Dear White People director Justin Simien is developing a series centered around Lando Calrissian.