‘Ahsoka’ Review: Rosario Dawson’s ‘Star Wars’ Series is a Gift for the Geeks

There’s more than one moment in the first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka that references magic. The phrase “fairy tale” is bandied about and the Disney+ show is essentially about a lone knight taking on an apprentice to hunt a monster down. While last year’s exquisite Star Wars series Andor shied away from the mythology and mysticism that defines Jedi stories, Ahsoka runs leaping towards it with the same determination with which Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) faces every foe. Star Wars: Ahsoka isn’t going to be for every Star Wars fan, but it will be a welcome adventure for fans of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Star Wars Rebels, and even the prequels. Basically, if Andor was Star Wars for prestige TV grownups, then Ahsoka is a show for us real dorky ass Star Wars geeks.

Star Wars: Ahsoka is set in the years following the Rebellion’s victory in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi. As we know from both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, the New Republic might be in charge, but Imperial supporters have infiltrated the system and dark forces continue to plot in the shadows. Ahsoka Tano, first introduced as Anakin Skywalker’s precocious padawan in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, now travels the galaxy following rumors about one such dangerous foe: Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). In The Mandalorian Season 2, Ahsoka had tracked down one of Thrawn’s most loyal servants, Morgan Elsbeth (Dianna Lee Inosanto). Now the two women are locked in a race to get to Thrawn first. Complicating things further? Elsbeth has the assistance of three mysterious force users: former Jedi Baylon Skoll (Ray Stevenson), his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), and the masked Merrok (Paul Darnell).

Ahsoka’s quest reunites her with Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). We learn that after the events of Star Wars Rebels — which ended with young Jedi Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) sacrificing himself to remove Thrawn from the picture by transporting them to a mysterious place far, far away — Sabine briefly became Ahsoka’s padawan. The master and apprentice had a bitter falling out and Sabine is only convinced to help in the hopes that finding Thrawn means finding Ezra. Also helping Ahsoka in this mission are General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), another Star Wars Rebels character, and the Jedi training droid Huyang (David Tennant), who first appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars.

If it’s starting to sound like Star Wars: Ahsoka is just a live action continuation of the Star Wars animated series, well, that’s exactly what it is. Ahsoka was created by Dave Filoni, a writer and director whom George Lucas poached from Avatar: The Last Airbender to create new Star Wars lore on the small screen. Filoni’s work was a hit with hard core fans and he soon became Lucas’s heir apparent. When Jon Favreau was tapped to make the first live action Star Wars show for Disney+, he tapped Filoni for help. It was a partnership that offered Filoni the chance to try his hand at live action storytelling. Which leads us to Star Wars: Ahsoka. A show that is both bettered and worsened by its ties to animation.

Because Star Wars: Ahsoka‘s main characters have already been richly developed over multiple seasons of television, they arrive onscreen here fully formed. The drawback, though, is that the show knows it has to carefully, clearly explain the basic beats of Ahsoka, Hera, and Sabine’s backstory for the bulk of the audience who did not tune into a Star Wars cartoon for kicks. This slows the rhythm of the first two episodes. Long pauses linger in the air so that the last line of dialogue sinks in. While Filoni is more than capable of creating a beautiful tableau in live action, the visuals here have an obvious artificiality that I assume was a creative decision. (That, or Lucasfilm really needs to rein in how often Star Wars directors lean on The Volume in lieu of thoughtful set design.) Star Rosario Dawson has done stellar work to physically mimic the animated Ahsoka’s trademark body language, but her performance is slightly stilted in the two episodes I’ve seen.

Despite these concerns, Star Wars: Ahsoka still charmed me. I found myself enchanted by the show’s earnest embrace of the classic Joseph Campbell “Hero’s Journey” tropes. Natasha Liu Bordizzo is the series’ early MVP and arguably the show’s true hero. It is Sabine who attempts to resist the call to adventure and it is Sabine who pops off the screen with her technicolor hair, roguish attitude, and artistic energy. The late, great Ray Stevenson and Ukrainian ingenue Ivanna Sakhno are also welcome additions to the Star Wars universe. It’s still unclear how they define themselves — they’re not Jedi, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they’re Sith — but they are certainly compelling and charismatic antagonists.

But perhaps what I enjoyed the most about the first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka was the scope of the story’s ambitions. The show keeps teasing ways in which it might expand our understanding of the Star Wars universe, the ways of the Force, and even the powers that control life in this fictional galaxy. For a lore nerd, this is exciting stuff.

The things that I liked about Star Wars: Ahsoka are precisely the elements that I suspect will turn some viewers off. The show’s connection to the animated series, earnest embrace of mythos, and classic tropes probably won’t excite mainstream Mandalorian fans. Nothing in Ahsoka matches the level of technical proficiency we got to lap up in Andor. Nevertheless, it is a must-watch for true Star Wars stans. It’s not just that Dave Filoni has finally brought his most beloved animated characters to life; he is potentially rewriting the rules of the Star Wars universe with them.

The first two episodes of Star Wars: Ahsoka premiere on Tuesday, August 22 at 9 PM ET or 6 PM PT.