Ahsoka: This Controversial Theory Resurrects A Dead Star Wars Clone In A New Body

If you're a newbie to the "Star Wars" franchise, you may not notice "Ahsoka" is loaded with references to the "Thrawn" trilogy — a series of novels set after "Return of the Jedi" that shaped fans' imaginations for decades. Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) is the book series' main villain, and he also hovers menacingly over the events of "Ahsoka." But one of the show's other grey-hatted characters — Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), a mercenary — has stirred up an intriguing fan theory as to her point of origin, one that may point back to the "Thrawn" trilogy as well.

A blonde, spirited, and driven apprentice to former Jedi Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson), the Force-sensitive Shin Hati bears a striking physical and skill-based resemblance to one legendary "Star Wars" character in particular: Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). Ergo, fans have begun to theorize that there's a reason for this — Shin Hati is Luke's female clone, engineered and raised by Skoll to serve his quest for power. This would make her a canon version of Luuke Skywalker, an evil clone of the famous Jedi Master.

And those aren't the only plot seeds that have been sewn for a possible reworking of the "Thrawn" trilogy. As controversial as the fan theory might appear at first blush, it might yet come to serve as part of Shin Hati's backstory. 

Luuke Skywalker sprang to life during the "Thrawn" trilogy's final installment, "The Last Command." In it, Luuke is revealed to be an apprentice of Joruus C'baoth, a clone and rogue Dark Jedi obsessed with drawing Luke, Princess Leia, and Leia's unborn children to the dark side. Luuke was cloned from Luke Skywalker's severed hand, lost in a lightsaber duel with Darth Vader during "The Empire Strikes Back," and trained in the ways of the Force by C'baoth with the lightsaber Skywalker lost that day.

Luke confronts his clone on Mount Tantiss, the locale of Emperor Palpatine's secret warehouse, where Luuke had been grown within the Empire's secret cloning faculty. In the ensuing fray, Luke and Leia almost die but are saved by Mara Jade, who kills Luuke and C'baoth. 

While it's definitely one of the best Luke Skywalker stories you'll never see in the movies, is it possible for "Ahsoka" to pull off a writing gambit and retrofit one of Legends' most famous plot twists into canon? After all, the latest batch of "Star Wars" shows has done a lot to establish that Force-sensitive people have recently become cloning subjects. The notion crops up in "The Mandalorian" Season 3, and Mount Tantiss itself has shown up in "The Bad Batch." Does all of that foreshadowing serve to underline Shin Hati's true purpose? Time will tell if she is all she appears to be — or if she's secretly harboring some other mysterious point of origin.