The next TV show in the Star Wars universe is slated to arrive on January 20, 2027, and it goes against a major story element that the sequel trilogy established. Continuity and consistency in this franchise have been hard to come by; a few examples include the fact that Ahsoka Tano is just absent from everything in the sequel trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi not recognizing R2-D2 and C-3PO, and Luke hiding on Darth Vader’s home planet while still using the name “Skywalker.” Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the seventh episode of the saga, laid out a new world for audiences and explained a bit about the galaxy in the wake of the fall of the Empire. The old Star Wars Legends novels filled in those gaps nicely, but they were retconned, and a new story was put into place. That story laid out a time of peace that has proven to be untrue.
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There is now an official trailer out for Ahsoka Season 2, and it reveals that things were anything but peaceful during this era. The Empire may have fallen, but what’s left of it did not go down without a fight. It might seem odd, but this kind of retcon is actually a great thing for Star Wars as a whole.
Ahsoka Season 2 Shows That The Galaxy Wasn’t At Peace
In the aforementioned Star Wars Legends novels, a trilogy of stories came out centered around Grand Admiral Thrawn. This brilliant military tactician led the remains of the scattered and depleted Empire into war against the New Republic. He proved to be a different kind of villain for the franchise and many longtime fans still see those books as the true sequel trilogy. Thrawn has been brought into the TV side of Star Wars and will be a major part of Ahsoka Season 2.
The trailer for the new season shows plenty of shots of Thrawn engaged in the heat of battle with the Rebel Alliance. It makes it clear that a full-scale war is going on, which feels like the exact opposite of what the franchise established in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. That film specifically states, even in its opening crawl, that the Resistance is trying to restore peace and justice in the galaxy after the rise of the First Order.
Following the events of Return of the Jedi, a peace treaty called the Galactic Concordance was signed. This officially ended the war and saw things like stormtrooper recruitment get banned. It all went down in quicker fashion than in the Star Wars Legends canon, and it’s said that this peaceful era lasted around three decades. With Ahsoka Season 2 depicting a pretty massive war, it goes against everything that the sequel trilogies established and changes this new Disney era canon.
This Retcon Is The Best Thing For Star Wars
Typically, it’s not a good thing when a franchise retcons itself or goes against its continuity, but in this case, this works out well for Star Wars. The reception to the sequel trilogy caused several problems for the franchise, including making it tough to tell stories set after that era. Fans have mixed feelings at best about many of the sequel trilogy characters and its choices, so no new releases are set after The Rise of Skywalker outside of the upcoming Star Wars: Starfighter. That means all of the Star Wars projects since have been set earlier, from Ahsoka to Obi-Wan Kenobi to The Acolyte.
Other than Star Wars: Starfighter, that seems unlikely to change, so the franchise needs to do something to ensure this era remains engaging to watch. The decision to have the peace treaty get signed so soon after Return of the Jedi means there are 30 years without much of interest to watch. Giving us a war raises the stakes of Ahsoka Season 2, gives the reunited members of the Ghost crew something important to do, and allows Thrawn to feel like the major antagonist that the franchise needs right now.
With Dave Filoni in charge of Star Wars, it’s even more likely that he’ll keep telling stories that take place before The Force Awakens. The characters that he holds dear and helped create, like Ahsoka, Din Djarin, and the members of the Ghost crew, are all from that era. It’s unclear if Thrawn or any of those characters will survive Ahsoka Season 2, but whoever does is likely to appear again and Star Wars operates at its best when there’s some kind of galactic conflict going on.
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