Ahsoka recap: Everything you need to know about the Star Wars legend

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Come late August, Star Wars fans will be able to relive the adventures of Jedi favourite Ahsoka Tano — this time in gloriously realised live-action.

This new spin-off is the latest Star Wars series to hit Disney+ and once again delves deep into the franchise’s extended world canon, with Rosario Dawson inheriting the titular role from Ashley Eckstein (who voiced Ahsoka in various TV projects) for a brief voice cameo in 2019's The Rise of Skywalker.

Ashoka will continue some adventures that were already established or set into motion in Star Wars Rebels and other small-screen Star Wars outings.

As such, we can expect to see cross-over characters including Natasha Liu Bordizzo’s Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, Mary Elizabeth Winstead’s Republic general Hera Syndulla and Lars Mikkelsen as the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn.

That’s not to say viewers need to do lots of homework before hitting play. Ahsoka aims to be just as accessible to canon-oblivious padawans as it is to hardened, take-no-sith Jedi experts.

As such, we can expect to see mainstream Star Wars faces like a heavily-hinted-at appearance from Haden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker and a new villain for us all to hiss at in Baylan Skoll, played by the late Ray Stevenson.

However, if you’re a completist keen to brush up on the sacred texts, one nifty Reddit user has put together a few extended universe shows worth checking out before Ashoka hits Disney+.

You can also find our own recommendations below.

Tales of the Jedi – Episode 1: Life and Death

Taking things right back to the start of Ahsoka’s journey, the first episode of Tales of the Jedi introduces audiences to the character’s backstory, beginning with her birth and family life.

Through a tale punctuated with themes of life, death and the balance of the force, we learn about Ahsoka’s mother, father and family life while getting a deeper understanding of how in-built her connection with the force really is, even from an early age.

Tales of the Jedi – Episode 5: Practice Makes Perfect

Shooting forward a few years, we find Ahsoka undergoing Jedi training with her master Anakin Skywalker. While her skills are already enviable, Anakin believes that the only way to really put them to the test is in a real-world situation and creates a simulation to see how far she might get if it was really a life-or-death fight.

The episode is notable for its closing shot. After Ahsoka has done battle with the simulation, the action cuts to a flashforward in which we see her facing a real deadly situation as the Jedi-culling Order 66 is being carried out. The scene acts as a reminder of Ahsoka’s links to the Jedi and her survivalist, loner nature.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 5: Episodes 17 - 20

A lot has happened throughout Ahsoka’s life so far and one of the most memorable moments happened during these key episodes of The Clone Wars. Throughout this series arc, Ahsoka is framed for bombing a sacred Jedi temple, hunted by her fellow Jedi and eventually put on trial.

Ultimately, it’s her Jedi master, Anakin Skywalker, who manages to clear her good name however, by that point, the damage has been done and Ahsoka is determined to leave her past behind to carve out her own path, something that we will likely see her undertake in her new live-action series.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Season 7: Episodes 9 - 12

Taking place alongside events that we’ve already glimpsed in The Mandalorian, these episodes of The Clone Wars see Ahsoka team up with Bo-Katan to ensure the liberation of Mandalore. However, by the time the job is done, she realises that a greater evil is at hand as her old Jedi master Anakin has fallen to the dark side, transformed into Darth Vader and enacted Order 66.

Read more: Star Wars: Ahsoka: Release date, cast, plot for Disney+ series as new trailer drops

Despite that deadly order marking the end of almost all of the Jedi, these shows explain how Ahsoka managed to avoid a similar fate while connecting the dots between the flashforward glimpsed during the end of Tales of the Jedi episode Practice Makes Perfect.

Tales of the Jedi Season 1: Episode 6

Continuing to chronicle Ahsoka’s key life events, this Tales of the Jedi adventure fills in some more important gaps that inform who the character is and what motivates her. Set just after the fall of the Jedi Order, we find Ahsoka alone, without her master and tailed by the evil Inquisitors — the same ones glimpsed in the Obi-Wan Kenobi spin-off series.

Despite the odds working against her, Ahsoka still decides to be a light burning in the darkness and fight for good in a primarily evil world - this time, with only herself for back-up.

Star Wars Rebels - Season 2: Episodes 21 - 22

During a quest for a sacred Jedi relic, we find Ahsoka working as a spy agent known as Fulcrum, offering assistance to fellow Jedis Kanan Jarrus and Ezra Bridger, the latter of whom will feature in her live-action series, played by Eman Esfandi.

These episodes are also notable for containing the moment where Ahsoka comes face to face with Darth Vader and realises that he is in fact her old Jedi master.

We also get a glimpse of the ‘World Between Worlds’ — a story element that became critical throughout Star Wars Rebels and is rumoured to play a part in Ahsoka’s live-action series.

Star Wars Rebels - Season 4: Episodes 13-15

After a climactic battle with Grand Admiral Thrawn, Bridger is lost in the deep recesses of space with this blue-skinned villain.

With Ahsoka and Sabine Wren determined to find their Jedi friend and save him, the duo set out to do exactly that before encountering the 'World Between Worlds' - a concept that could bring time travel into Star Wars’ live-action adventures.

The Mandalorian Season 2: Episode 5

For many people, this episode of The Mandalorian’s second series acts as their first encounter with Ahsoka Tano. Here, we find her going up against Diana Lee Inosanto’s Morgan Elsbeth in an attempt to find the location of Grand Admiral Thrawn while brushing paths with Mando and Grogu in the process.

This brief mention of Thrawn ties things up with the upcoming events of Ahsoka’s stand-alone series, with the Jedi continuing her search for this long-running Imperial military leader.

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi, The Clone Wars, Rebels, The Mandalorian, and all of the Star Wars movies are streaming on Disney+.

Ahsoka airs on Disney+ from Wednesday, 23 August 2023.