Star Wars: The Clone Wars Boss Dave Filoni Explains Why Ahsoka’s Mid-Season Arc Was So Challenging

The final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars wrapped up this week on Disney+, years after the show was originally cancelled on Cartoon Network and concluded its remaining episodes in an unceremonious Netflix dump. Fans have been clamoring for closure for years, especially after the Ahsoka novel and the former Padawan’s appearance in Star Wars Rebels hinted at a bigger purpose in the galaxy. And when the final season got underway, the character’s return was somewhat divisive due to a four-episode arc that didn’t really deal with the issues of the Jedi, the rise of the Sith, or the Clone Wars in a way that some people expected.

But Filoni and the team carefully crafted that storyline for a reason — to show how the war between the Republic and the Separatists had affected everyday citizens of the galaxy, and giving Ahsoka a front row seat to those repercussions — and it was a massive challenge for the creators.

“The middle four episodes, which is kind of Ahsoka on a walkabout, experiencing what it’s like to be living in the New Republic in this time of war, were a pretty difficult arc,” Filoni explained to Deadline. “That took a lot of working and reworking just to establish what this experience is supposed to be for her. It’s a path intended to inform a different point of view for her on the entire war. So, that had its own challenges.”

This storyline also set up Maul’s involvement, his criminal stature from the events of The Clone Wars and Solo: A Star Wars Story, and also paving the way for Anakin’s reunion with Ahsoka after she quit the Jedi Order.

“Then I wanted to drive the narrative of Bo-Katan and Darth Maul into that story, and set us up for the ending. Allocating time was key in the last four episodes,” said Filoni. “I had to make a real decision to have Anakin and Ahsoka reunite, and that took about half of that first episode. Anything less than what I did would really be shorting the audience, because they had looked forward to that for so long.”

There wasn’t a lot of time to keep Anakin and Ahsoka together, even though Filoni knew that’s what many fans wanted to see.

“So, you have to be managing the expectations of this versus the reality for the characters in the moment, because they don’t know. Ahsoka doesn’t know it’s the last time she’s going to see Anakin. She doesn’t feel the time the way the audience does. Those are the challenges, but that’s what I love to do, and I was really just pleased with how it all turned out.”

Every episode of Star Wars: The Clone Wars is now streaming on Disney+.