Ahsoka Season 2 Officially Fixes One Major Star Wars Problem

Because of their nature, Star Wars projects cost a lot of money to make, but a case can be made that Lucasfilm and Disney have still gone a little overboard in the spending department. Hundreds upon hundreds of millions of dollars have gone to Star Wars production budgets, with some of the films and TV shows ranking among the most expensive ever made. Unfortunately, this business model was not sustainable for the long-term, particularly on television, where there isn’t a box office to help recoup costs. As a new era of Lucasfilm kicks off under the leadership of co-presidents Dave Filoni and Lynwen Brennan, the studio seems to be on course to correct this problem.

Forbes recently published a breakdown of the expenses for the upcoming Ahsoka Season 2, revealing that it cost 30% less than The Acolyte. The outlet cites filings from production company Robot Dog Pictures; in “the year to February 28, 2025, the company spent $33.7 million.” The year before that, they spent only $40,676. Since Ahsoka Season 2 began production shortly after February 28, 2025, the takeaway is that these figures cover essentially all of the pre-production expenses. Money spent on production and post-production won’t be released publicly until the next filings are published later this year. As a point of comparison, a month before The Acolyte started shooting, $42.4 million had gone towards The Acolyte.

Has Lucasfilm Finally Solved Its Production Woes?

It remains to be seen what the production budget for Ahsoka Season 2 was, but if this information is anything to go by, it will be under The Acolyte‘s price tag. That would be an encouraging development; The Acolyte cost $230 million to make. That budget was cited as one of the main reasons why the show was cancelled after just a single season despite the cliffhanger ending in the finale. The Acolyte was released between the two seasons of Andor, which cost a whopping $650 million. Andor showrunner Tony Gilroy noted he had to fight hard to secure that money.

When Disney+ launched, there was an influx of new Star Wars and Marvel content to give the streaming service some high-profile original programming, but Disney eventually learned that it couldn’t continue pouring in an exorbitant amount of money into these productions. The Mouse House told Gilroy that “streaming is dead,” an admission that budgets at spiraled out of control and the model that fueled Star Wars’ output for the first half of this decade wasn’t practical anymore. It’s telling that there are no live-action Star Wars shows on the docket after Ahsoka Season 2. Disney and Lucasfilm have been re-evaluating their slate, seemingly prioritizing theatrical features.

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Of course, Disney+ isn’t going anywhere any time soon, so it would be unreasonable to think Lucasfilm is just going to stop making TV shows. After all, animated series Maul – Shadow Lord has a second season in the works. Live-action TV may no longer be the top priority for Lucasfilm moving forward, but if the right idea crosses Filoni’s desk, something could get the green light. It’s important that the studio seems to have gotten a handle on TV budgets. Ahsoka Season 2 could perhaps be a template moving forward, showing the higher-ups at Disney how the creatives are going to spend responsibly so new Star Wars content doesn’t break the bank accounts.

Lucasfilm seems to have figured things out on the film side as well. The Mandalorian and Grogu is the least-expensive Star Wars film of the Disney era at around $165 million. That makes its modest box office gross (for a Star Wars movie) tenable since it should end its theatrical run turning a profit. Time will tell how much next year’s Star Wars: Starfighter cost to make, but the fact that it wrapped production in December 2025 (about a year and a half before its scheduled release date) indicates things went smoothly. The first slate of Disney’s Star Wars movies were plagued by various behind-the-scenes issues, but hopefully that’s a thing of the past now. Lucasfilm seems to be making its way through projects efficiently.

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