This Fan-Favorite Character Will Reportedly Appear In The Disney Ahsoka Series

The recent Disney+ animated series "Star Wars: The Bad Batch" directly links itself to multiple "Star Wars" TV series before it in its very first episode. Emperor Palpatine broadcasts Order 66 to the Republic's army of clone soldiers in the show's opening minutes, thus commanding his clone army to execute any and all Jedi. The titular Bad Batch (first introduced in the "Star Wars: The Clone Wars") is in the midst of fighting alongside Jedi master Depa Billaba and her Padawan Caleb Dume when they receive the order. Viewers familiar with "Star Wars: Rebels," also created by "Bad Batch" showrunner Dave Filoni, will recognize Caleb Dume as a young Kanan Jarrus, one of the protagonists of "Rebels."

"The Mandalorian," also a Filoni project, is likewise in the direct lineage of both "Clone Wars" and "Rebels," thanks to the inclusion of characters like Bo-Katan Kryze and Ahsoka Tano. Whereas Bo-Katan is generally only featured in episodes of "Clone Wars" and "Rebels" involving the planet Mandalore, Ahsoka is perhaps the closest character to the protagonist of "Clone Wars" and still an important presence in "Rebels." In "The Mandalorian," Rosario Dawson portrays an older, live action version of Ahsoka in the Season 2 episode "The Jedi." Dawson will appear as Ahsoka again in the central role of a live action series focused on her character (via IMDb). While most details about the show are still under wraps, a recent Hollywood Reporter article revealed, for the first time, the addition of another "Rebels" character to the upcoming "Ahsoka" TV series.

The Hollywood Reporter embedded their "Star Wars" reveal in an article about the upcoming animated Marvel TV series "What If...?" in the midst of discussing popular characters in live action works that first appeared in animated form. The piece includes Ahsoka as an example, before also citing sources at Lucasfilm currently looking to cast someone in "Ahsoka" to play Sabine Wren, a character first introduced in "Star Wars: Rebels."

While this is undoubtedly good news for fans of "Rebels" and Sabine, the announcement most likely will not come as a surprise to those who watched "Rebels" in its entirety. In the final episode of "Rebels," protagonist Ezra Bridger uses the force to command a species of squid-like space creatures called purrgil to commandeer the ship of the villainous Grand Admiral Thrawn, which Ezra is also on board. The purrgil transport the ship far away through hyperspace, removing the threat of Thrawn to Ezra's home planet of Lothal, while also spiriting away Ezra himself. In the final moments of "Rebels," which take place a few years later, Ahsoka and Sabine prepare together for a journey to rescue Ezra, wherever he may have ended up in space.

The "Star Wars: Rebels" finale aired on March 5, 2018, so Sabine's inclusion in "Ahsoka" more-or-less confirms the continuation of a years-long cliffhanger. If its production remains on track, "Ahsoka" is expected to premiere sometime in 2022.