Dave Filoni and Cast of ‘Ahsoka’ Talk Potential Season 2, Darth Vader and Baylan Skoll
In a mammoth interview with Vanity Fair‘s Anthony Breznican, Dave Filoni and the main cast of Ahsoka talk about Vader, their characters, Baylan Skoll and whether or not they think there will be an Ahsoka season 2.
One of the first things addressed is the Darth Vader of it all. Why bring him back? Was that really him in the World Between Worlds? How did Hayden Christensen approach the character at this point in the Star Wars timeline?
Rosario Dawson talks about what it means for Ahsoka now that she’s finally been able to reckon with Anakin’s legacy, and what that means for her now that she’s moved past that trauma.
She had a very particular idea of him, the Jedi Order, and who she was in all of that for a very long time until that image was shattered. The point we graduate to here is, yeah, he did some terrible things, and he also did some really great things. And it’s always up to you how you choose the direction. She can look back at her own life. She’s gone through some hardships that could have been the moment that turned her dark. She didn’t go there. So I think she’s starting to trust herself.
Maybe he’s also a warning of what can still happen, but that’s still significant in a positive way if you want it to be.
We were able to take a little bit more time to go, ‘What does this feel like? What does this mean?’ and [explore] the choices that come from that kind of reckoning. We’ve seen that when she decided to leave the Jedi order. We saw that when she walked away from Anakin. There’ve been pivotal moments; this felt like that seminal moment again. This is a different rite of passage.
We had so many moments of literal tears [when filming episode five]. I have a video of some of us with the crew just watching when Darth was walking up. We just wanted to be on the edge, just off camera, so we could watch him unencumbered with our own eyes and just take it in. Are we really seeing what we’re seeing right now? This is unbelievable.
One of the things Dave Filoni wanted to do in Ahsoka was address the fallout of the Ahsoka vs Vader conflict in Star Wars Rebels.
While I had introduced in Rebels the idea that she came to understand that Anakin had become Darth Vader, I never really dealt with the fallout from that.
How does that affect somebody when a person that they really admire and looked up to turned out not to be the person they thought they were? Are we all just capable of a fall from grace? And what is forgiveness? What shape does that look like? Did I take the good parts of this person with me as well as the bad, or am I just the good? I thought there were a lot of interesting challenges for her.
Anyone wondering if the Anakin Skywalker we see in the World Between Worlds was real or just a figment of Ahsoka’s imagination will be left guessing, as Hayden Christensen deliberately played it vague. However, he displayed a great level of insight that comes from playing the character across different eras.
That’s the beauty of how the episode is constructed, in my opinion. Inevitably, the audience has to question what it is they’re watching. Is this really the World Between Worlds? What is the World Between Worlds? Is this actually the spirit of Anakin Skywalker, or is this all in Ahsoka’s subconscious and we’re just going down the yellow brick road as she’s drowning and fighting for her life? I think that the episode provides a few really good clues, but it doesn’t spell it out for you.
There’s a lot there to unpack, potentially. I was getting to play a version of this character that I hadn’t before, and that was the all-knowing, all-powerful Jedi master who could wield both sides of the force—light and dark—at will, and maybe has the power to save Ahsoka’s life, which also is very interesting because that’s the power that he was trying to achieve when he pledged himself to the dark side.
Unsurprisingly, Filoni also prefers to leave it open to interpretation, stating that he’s reluctant to touch Anakin post-Return of the Jedi so as not to spoil George Lucas’ story and his intentions for the character. However, he does mention that perhaps Anakin has always been looking out for Ahsoka since his death, but perhaps she was unable to see him while her mind clouded was clouded with doubt.
My feeling about Anakin is that George resolved everything about Anakin. I don’t think I have anything to do there. I’m not trying to add anything to that. Everything Anakin’s involved with is about her [Ahsoka]. It’s about her point of view on Anakin. It’s about what Anakin taught her. He’s there in more of an Obi-Wan role that we saw in the old movies.
Anakin…of course he’s there with her. He’s always been there with her, but she just couldn’t see it. She couldn’t feel it. She didn’t know. She had isolated herself and made herself alone because she was afraid.
He has done a great deal to alleviate that fear in her. And so there’s a moment. I think he’s proud of her in the end. He sees that she’s going to be a better mentor. I debate Force ghosts with people all the time. To me, what they are mainly is inspiration. You have people in your life that I’m sure have inspired you. And you feel that all the time. You feel that when you need it.
Natasha Liu Bordizzo spoke a little about Anakin’s final appearance in the season finale and her excitement at sharing the stage with one of Star Wars‘ legacy characters.
I was geeking out at that scene. We were on a stage outside that was not the Volume for that scene. We shot it basically exactly as it is. He was standing there, for real. It somehow makes it feel even more epic to bring those original characters into the fold of our story.
She also spoke about how Darth Vader’s legacy affected Sabine’s relationship with Ahsoka.
But the line of descendants is full of nontraditional Jedi, and then Jedis who have turned. So it’s not necessarily a very steady, solid line to be trusted. Part of the reason Ahsoka originally had issues trusting Sabine was because I reminded her so much of her master in some ways, in terms of the internal struggle I was going through.
Dave Filoni spoke about the surprising decision to put Ezra and Thrawn in a different galaxy – most of all, he wanted it to be believable that they were somewhere that they really couldn’t be contacted by conventional means, but Attack of the Clones was also a source of inspiration.
If they were in the Star Wars galaxy—the old Star Wars galaxy that we know—I think somebody would’ve found them. There’s too many starships, there’s too many people traveling. You get a signal out, and I think you could have found them if they wanted to be found. I had to really throw them far afield.
I think it’s in Attack of the Clones. If you look, there’s an image of the galaxy, and then there are actually these smaller galaxies near it. So I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’
There was also talk about a potential second season of Ahsoka. Rosario Dawson says she wants to continue playing the character “for the rest of my life” and though nothing has been confirmed, she believes Lucasfilm is keen to greenlight it. She also revealed Dave Filoni is already working on an outline for season 2.
I mean, they’ve not said anything officially, but I remember when we were at Star Wars Celebration in London and they were like, ‘We’re giving Dave a movie!’ And I was like, ‘I kind of feel like that means we’re probably going to get a second season.’ For a while now, and especially now with the strike and everything, no one can say anything. But he did say he was working on an outline. So, we’ll see.
Speaking of Ahsoka season 2, Dave Filoni also spoke about Baylan Skoll and Ray Stevenson, touching on that final scene in particular.
You have to be careful with that. I know it’s a very specific group of people that would even know what those statues are, but I thought it was an exciting image, and it does give you the shape of what Baylan is after.
He’s a person that survived the Clone Wars, that was trained in the waxing-waning days of the Jedi Knights, just like Anakin. He saw his order, his way of life fall apart. And he’s basically deemed it a failure: That way did not work. That it’s not something worth resurrecting. Which is why he tells Shin, ‘I didn’t teach you to be a Jedi. I taught you to be something more.’
He’s tried to take these teachings that he learned as a young person and create his own way of being. And he’s looked at the cycle of things and said, ‘Enough with this. If I have this power, I should wield it. I should be the one making decisions,’ which a lot of people with power decide that’s the way to go. He’s also very certain that what he’s doing now is the right thing.
Obviously, there’s a story there. We’re in a wait-and-see pattern at this point. But I’m glad the conversation is about Ray and how great he was…. I used to have mini debates with him and say, ‘Ray, you’re the villain here.’ And he’d be like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I was like, ‘I know you don’t think so, but you are. I love that you’re playing it like you’re not.’ Which is exactly the way Baylan thinks.
Like all of us, Filoni was deeply saddened by Ray’s passing and that he never got to see what people felt about his performance.
I think he would’ve been over the moon. The big regret here is that he didn’t get to experience that. I’m glad he was at Star Wars Celebration with us, that he got to see the trailer and get a taste of that from the fans. And they’ve been nothing but wonderful about Ray and the character.
Finally, Natasha Liu Bordizzo also spoke about how she brought some of her own experiences to set when portraying this older version of Sabine. It was easier than perhaps she expected, as Sabine is 28 years old in Ahsoka — the same age as Natasha.
We’re the same age, actually, Sabine and I. I was 28 when we shot it, and everything I was going through in life at that age, I wanted to channel it. She wasn’t a teenager anymore, but she’s still someone who needs guidance. Where I was at in life was very parallel to her. I was just at a big crossroads. Your late 20s can be kind of rough. You’re getting past a lot of stuff that used to interest you and moving into a new chapter.
The Force, and Sabine trying to achieve use of the Force, was such a metaphor for me of trying to achieve that groundedness in real life. It just made me laugh. A lot of the time I would read the episodes and be like, ‘I can relate to that.’ Obviously, I’m not trying to achieve the Force, but it’s all related.
She also spoke of her hope that Sabine’s character can continue to evolve past her tendency to be “stubborn with lots of walls up”, lamenting the lack of time to have that level of character growth in an eight-episode season with plenty else going on.
Hopefully that can evolve. It didn’t have enough time to evolve that much in season one, because as you’re learning about these characters, they’re also going through crazy upheaval and war and problems. So we’ll see where that goes.
There’s an awful lot to unpack there, but it’s nice to hear the creator and cast be able to speak about Ahsoka at last. Hopefully it’s not too long before we hear about Ahsoka Season 2, especially now that Dave Filoni has been promoted to Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm.
Josh is a huge Star Wars fan, who has spent far too much time wondering if any Star Wars character could defeat Thanos with all the Infinity Stones.
