Star Wars: Ahsoka Will Continue to Explore Franchise's Samurai Influence

Star Wars: Ahsoka arrives on Disney+ next week, taking the mythos of the Star Wars universe down a new path. While the series' titular protagonist, Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson), has largely been portrayed in animation, it sounds like her biggest jump yet into live-action will help further flesh out the franchise. In the official Star Wars: Ahsoka production briefing, producers Dave Filoni and Jon Favreau teased what to expect with regards to the show's lightsaber battles.

"There are things about the Jedi that feel like the samurai," Filoni explained. "For a trained warrior, the sword is the last thing they'd resort to, not the first. The sword doesn't make you powerful. Your will, your selfcontrol and your thoughts are what make you powerful. So these are the ideas that I've tried to put into the story. How Ahsoka trains people and what her own internal philosophy is. To express this, we needed a real martial artist to work with the actors, so we hired Ming Qiu and her team."

"When you see the lightsaber fighting in this series, you're going to see a very well-realized, well-rehearsed battle," Favreau added. "A tremendous amount of training has gone into it to bring these lightsaber battles to life because Ahsoka Tano has to look like a top-tier expert with these weapons. With Ming Qiu, any time we had her on the set it was just elevating everything. For Dave to engage with her for our training and fight choreography around the lightsaber battles, you're inheriting a whole lifetime of experience around us, and I think all of that shows. I think that was very important to Dave for the lightsaber fights to feel like these are characters that have been doing this for a lifetime."

How Many Episodes Will Star Wars: Ahsoka Have?

As Disney+ has already confirmed, Star Wars: Ahsoka is set to be eight episodes. The episodes are also expected to have slightly-longer episodes than its sister series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian.

"That's an interesting question. I would say it's pretty relative when you do this kind of work," Filoni shared in a recent interview with Collider. "One thing Jon [Favreau] and I are very adamant about is we try to cut it down and strip it down to keep it moving. It's definitely a faster and more intense rule than George [Lucas] has. My episodes have actually started pretty long, you know, because I wrote them all, so they are a little different. Probably, relative to other stuff that I've written and done, like the episode 'The Jedi.' If it's gotta be tight and fast because I need the action to work, it's gonna be shorter, but I would say they are in the same range as The Mandalorian episodes... Maybe on average a little longer, but I honestly I don't know where they are right now, in the most recent cuts that I've done, but I would say it's in the same range."

What Will Star Wars: Ahsoka Be About?

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, premiering in August 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.

Are you excited to Star Wars: Ahsoka? How do you feel about this new quote? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

Star Wars: Ahsoka is expected to debut on Disney+ on August 23rd. If you haven't signed up for Disney+ yet, you can try it out here.

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