Although Disney put much of the focus of its D23 celebration on Friday night on its Marvel properties—rolling out a new(ish) trailer for Avengers: Doomsday, showing off VisionQuest, and finally confirming a big chunk of its X-Men cast—its Star Wars offerings did get at least a little bit of love. Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy were there to show a bit of (not currently online) footage for their upcoming Starfighter, but the most concrete offering on hand was a new trailer for the second season of Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka, complete with a new release date: January 20, 2027.
As ever, this looks very much like Dave Filoni’s baby: The newly minted co-president of Lucasfilm‘s fingerprints are all over the trailer, from the return of Lars Mikkelsen’s bright blue Grand Admiral Thrawn to the presence of multiple characters from Filoni’s various animated shows. We also get plenty more of Hayden Christensen as the Force ghost of Ahsoka’s old teacher, Anakin Skywalker, who kind of reminds us why you wouldn’t want a ghostly parental figure hanging around you all the time, asking you nagging questions about why you haven’t decided to buckle down and just become a Jedi yet.
All that, plus the standard array of space battles, laser swords, laser bows, and ominous pronouncements about mysterious knowledge that may or may not lead the galaxy to ruin and/or peace. It all certainly looks snazzy enough, but there’s an open question of whether Filoni has managed to handle the basic flaw of the show’s first season, i.e., whether anybody not versed in the very specific Star Wars universe he’s been weaving through his TV shows over the last 18 years will be able to understand why this story, and this character, is worth so much build-up. We’ll know more, presumably, once January 2027 rolls its way around.
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