Just days after the announcement that Dave Filoni had been promoted to Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, the new CCO has spoken with Entertainment Weekly to discuss the first season of Ahsoka. However, here we’ll highlighting what the Ahsoka series creator shared in regards to a possible second season.
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Just a couple of days ago, Vanity Fair revealed that Dave Filoni had taken on the role of Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm in a piece that saw Filoni discuss the first season in-depth. Though the topic of a second season of Ahsoka was brought up in the piece, Filoni remained tight lipped as the outlet shared that a second season had still yet to be greenlit at Lucasfilm and Disney+. Filoni is once again making the rounds to discuss season one of Ahsoka, and as you’d expect, the question of a second season was approached in the latest interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The outlet reaffirmed what’s been making its way around the trades since Ahsoka season one wrapped up and what Vanity Fair shared a few days ago – a second season has yet to be greenlit. EW asked Filoni of the prospect of a second season, referencing threads set up in Ahsoka that they assume fans would like to see resolution to in a second season. Filoni, the tight-lipped man of mystery, gave a very Filoni answer, by basically not answering the question, but giving the interviewer enough to chew on. You can read Filoni’s quote below.
“I’ve set up several threads that can continue. If not, I feel like, ‘well, at least I got Ezra home’, and that was really important. But there’s always a plan. I hope one day we’ll see it. It could be very cool, but it took a while to get Ahsoka done, so you never know. Always in motion is the future.” – Dave Filoni
Filoni teases a plan of resolution for the threads set up in Ahsoka, though doesn’t commit to the resolution being part of a possible second season. It’s more than likely that not everything set up in Ahsoka would be answered in a season two, but that answers would be spread across the second season, Filoni’s MandoVerse crossover movie and other MandoVerse series. Filoni shares that it would be “very cool” to have a second season of Ahsoka, but that the first season took quite some time to get made, possibly hinting that it might take sometime to see a second season even if it gets the green light.
Previously it was revealed that Lucasfilm’s hopes were to shoot and release both the fourth season of The Mandalorian and a possible second season of Ahsoka before the release of Filoni’s aforementioned MandoVerse crossover movie, which will see various characters and plot lines from the live-action Disney+ series Filoni has produced in recent years including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett and Ahsoka. At this time it’s believed that the Filoni movie is currently aiming to release in December 2026, seven months after the untitled Rey Skywalker movie which is due to be released in May of the same year, with the star of the film, Daisy Ridley, recently sharing that her movie will be the next Star Wars film to release.
As of now, it is my belief that The Mandalorian season four will shoot in early 2024 and release sometime in 2025. The previous Mando season took six months to film and spent a year in post-production before debuting on Disney’s streaming service, meaning the shoot for Mando season four will likely take up around half a year to shoot and if the post-production process is similar to that of season three, we might not see the series hit our screens until the second or third quarter of 2025.
In the Vanity Fair article it was mentioned that Filoni was exploring ideas for a possible second season, likely meaning he’s not close to writing a draft, let alone finishing a final/shooting script. With that in mind, it’s unlikely Ahsoka would film at the same time as The Mandalorian, though we know it’s possible for two Star Wars series to film at Manhattan Beach Studios at once as it happened last year with Ahsoka and the upcoming Skeleton Crew. In my personal opinion, and it is only an opinion, if a second season of Ahsoka is a go, we likely would not see it start filming until the second half of the year. Ahsoka season one filmed for six months, just like The Mandalorian season three, but released between nine and ten months after filming concluded. If the timetable is similar to what I laid out, it’s possible to get both The Mandalorian season four and Ahsoka season two released well in advance of Filoni’s crossover event film, which you’d assume would have to start filming sometime in 2025 to make its December 2026 release window.
It’s very possible that a second season of Ahsoka does not happen, after all the viewing figures were fine, but didn’t hold a candle to bigger hits such as The Mandalorian, Obi-Wan Kenobi or The Book of Boba Fett. If a second season does not come to fruition, though I hope it does, we could see threads meant to appear in the second season implemented into other MandoVerse series such as The Mandalorian or left for the crossover movie. Jon Favreau, the creator and writer of The Mandalorian, previously blended plot points and elements meant for The Mandalorian spin-off series, Rangers of the New Republic, into the third season of The Mandalorian as Rangers was cancelled. Disney are looking to tighten their belts and make less Star Wars and Marvel series than what they have been doing in recent years, and blending threads meant for an Ahsoka season two inside other priority projects might seem attractive to the industry giant.
One of the most exciting characters in the first season of Ahsoka was Baylan Skoll, brilliantly portrayed by the late Ray Stevenson. Unfortunately Stevenson passed away before the release of the series and did not get to witness how the Star Wars fandom fell in love with his character and performance. Skoll was without doubt one of the most interesting characters in the series and the season finale leaves Baylan in an interesting place. After separating from his apprentice Shin Hati, Baylan alone seeks out a mythical power he’s heard of from old Jedi legends (per EW) and the final scene see’s Skoll stood on crumbling statues of the three Mortis God’s that Dave Filoni introduced fans to in the Star Wars animated series, The Clone Wars, with Baylan focusing on a light in the distance.
Fans have wondered what’s next for Baylan after the season one cliffhanger and the untimely passing of Stevenson. It was evident from the finale that Filoni and company had big plans for the new fan favourite character. Though he didn’t share any insight into how he and Lucasfilm plan to take the Baylan character forward without Stevenson, Filoni told EW that in regards to future projects (such as an Ahsoka season two), it will be “a challenge.”
The unfortunate passing of Stevenson has likely brought a tough topic of conversation for Filoni, Lucasfilm and Disney with regrets to how they proceed with the character of Baylan Skoll and could be a hold up as to why a second season of Ahsoka has yet to be given the go ahead. All involved have likely held in-depth conversations with how to approach the character moving forward and you’d imagine the handling of the Skoll character would be a tender topic for a second season of Ahsoka. How do Filoni and Lucasfilm carry on with the character? The most obvious answer is a recast, but it’ll be hard pill for some fans to swallow given how quickly many fell in love with Stevenson’s performance of the character. Another is the use of artificial intelligence, something Lucasfilm have used in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, using deep-fake technology to place the face of a younger Mark Hamill/Luke Skywalker on another actors face and used A.I. to replicate Hamill’s voice. Lastly, and the option I hope they don’t go with, is that they can choose to not follow the Baylan character, having him operate off screen, but with the ramifications of his activities impacting our characters on screen in either a second season of Ahsoka, the crossover movie or both.
Hopefully we get news on the second season of Ashoka soon enough, whether it’s positive or negative. But one thing I hope for more than anything is that Lucasfilm and Filoni handle the Baylan character with care going forward, which I assume they hope to do, honouring the late-great Ray Stevenson.
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