Star Wars Ahsoka: Was the Loth-Cat CGI?

The loth-cat in Ahsoka is similar to Grogu...

By Jamie Jirak

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka, "Master and Apprentice" and "Toil and Trouble," are now available to watch on Disney+, and they feature some fan-favorite Star Wars Rebels characters. Rosario Dawson returns to the role of Ahsoka after first bringing her to life in live-action in The Mandalorian, and she's now joined by Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Sabine Wren and Mary Elizabeth Winstead as Hera Syndulla in addition to some other Rebels characters. Ahsoka also brought another Star Wars Rebels staple into live-action: the loth-cat. The cat-like creatures, which are native to Lothal, are a big part of Rebels, and Ahsoka sees Sabine keeping one as a pet. When it comes to Star Wars creatures, some are puppets, some are CGI, and some are a little bit of both. In a recent interview with Empire, Bordizzo confirmed the loth-cat in Ahsoka is animatronic, not CGI. 

Just like Grogu, CGI is still used for the more complex movements of the loth-cath, but fans will be happy to know that the actors actually got to play with the creature on set. "That was my little buddy!" Bordizzo shared. "That cat, the complexity of the design... I mean, it has a real skeleton under there, because that's how they control such intense facial expressions and everything."

"It was real, it was there!" Winstead added. 

Dave Filoni Talks Bringing Animated Star Wars Characters Into Live-Action:

Filoni is currently an executive producer on Star Wars: The Mandalorian and served as the showrunner for Star Wars: Ahsoka. Earlier this year, Filoni revealed to The Wrap that bringing animated characters into live-action isn't his priority, but he did tease more to come in Ahsoka. 

"Very rarely," Filoni revealed when asked how often he thinks about brining his cartoon characters to live action. "I know people think it's the other way around, which is fascinating to me, but I think there's two ways to look at that, which is that, yes, they were animated characters, but to me, they're just characters. And now I'm over here working in live-action. I'm comfortable with those characters, I know them, I like them and I like to see them around.

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"At the end of the day, I've been very happy with the ones that have gone over," Filoni said of the characters who have moved from animation to live-action. "There may or may not be more in Ahsoka, if that's your thing. If you're excited about that, I'm just saying that one might have a few more, which makes sense, by the way. As you know, I wrote it. You can't fault me there." 

What Is Ahsoka About?

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, premiering August 23rd on the streamer. The series picks up after the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which we saw the former Jedi searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and helping Luke Skywalker train Grogu. Ahsoka will be joined on her new mission alongside longtime allies Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as they attempt to track down Thrawn, who was last seen disappearing to the far reaches of space after a confrontation with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Star Wars: Ahsoka is the latest live-action series from Lucasfilm's creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

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