AHSOKA Review – A Long-Awaited Return to Form

The following article is a non-spoiler review of the first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka, “Master and Apprentice” and “Toil and Trouble”.

The Star Wars fanbase would agree that the saga has been on a rocky road since 2015, with a few highlights here and there. The franchise seemed to be on the right track with the genesis of Jon Favreau & Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” (as dubbed by the fanbase), but this took a minor stumble during its last two instalments. This puts Ahsoka in a unique position, as the series is at the precipice of redeeming the franchise or permanently condemning it.

Star Wars: Ahsoka is the first title spotlighting one of George Lucas’ legacy characters as the lead since his departure from the franchise. With this, there is instantly a lot of pressure to land the character as dedicated fans watch with raised eyebrows, but with the series helmed by the character’s co-creator in Dave Filoni, I had no doubt that his 18-year long stewardship over the character, combined with his directorial highlights in the first two episodes of The Mandalorian, would produce a series that respects George Lucas’ Star Wars.

Off the bat, the series immediately lets you know this series takes Star Wars back to its roots via part one’s title crawl – a homage to Lucas’ Star Wars – the first time we’ve seen a crawl since 2019’s The Rise of Skywalker. There are quite a few references to the Lucas era of Star Wars, especially by use of visual tributes and John Williams’ orchestral music. It was important for Filoni to take us back to where the Star Wars galaxy began before taking us out of it for the first time in franchise history.

The series’ episode structure proves this is not The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett, both of which have separate “chapters” with their own story arcs. Ahsoka has “parts”, which together will tell one complete story without the use of filler or side-quests. This means single episodes will leave you unsatisfied, but wanting more. The pacing is slower than any “Mandoverse” series, instead placing it in a league closer to Andor, Lucasfilm’s critically acclaimed and award-winning Star Wars series.

The cast is very strong. As a fan of Star Wars: Rebels from childhood, most of the Ghost Crew’s live-action counterparts felt like natural continuations of their animated characters,

The series applies a tremendous effort for its characters, backdrops, and aesthetic to look faithful to Star Wars, especially those returning from Rebels. Whether these are alien characters or planets, Filoni spares no expense. This is a far-cry from last summer’s Kenobi, whose returning characters and planets in some instances looked like lazy attempts that barely resembled their previous appearances.

Ahsoka is off to a very promising start – the series premiere introduces intriguing characters and sets up a clear story, one I am interested in. Despite Ahsoka being its own project, unshackled to anything else, there is an immense pressure on the show to deliver, as it will be directly setting up 2026’s “Mandoverse” crossover movie, which will be Star Wars’ much needed resurrection on the big screen. While I am extremely excited to see where the series goes, I remain cautiously optimistic.

Star Wars: Ahsoka will debut its first two episodes tomorrow at 2am BST, followed by individual episodes releasing Wednesdays at the same time.

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