Watch the first two episodes of Ahsoka

Ahsoka, the TV show has a difficult task. Obi-Wan and Boba Fett spun out of three of the most popular movies in existence (The Original Trilogy), movies most people have watched.

The Mandalorian was even better positioned because Din is a brand new character walking through a familiar setting. They can do whatever they want with him. Ahsoka is a sequel to Star Wars: Rebels, an animated show that aired between 2014 and 2018. Star Wars fans loved it, but like most animated content from the franchise, it failed to gain a foothold among mainstream audiences.

And yet, Dave Filoni (producer and director) is expected to create a live-action follow-up to the cartoon. That means introducing new audiences to characters they know next to nothing about, while simultaneously servicing fans of the animated show who want Filoni to explore the plot threads that Star Wars: Rebels left dangling when it ended.

Filoni can’t target hardcore fans alone because he will confuse newcomers. But if he panders to the newcomers by attempting to re-introduce every character, fans of Rebels will lose interest because Filoni is basically covering familiar ground.

In other words, he needs to walk a very fine line. Will he succeed? Well, the first two episodes of Ahsoka are here and I’m perfectly placed to answer that question because I’m among the newbies.

Here’s what I got from the show. These events take place after Return of the Jedi. The Empire has fallen. A bad guy called Thrawn ascended and did some terrible things. A unit of rebel warriors fought him.

Their leader, a Jedi called Ezra Bridger, sacrificed his life to stop Thrawn. But Thrawn is alive, and remnants of the Empire hope to retrieve him. Ahsoka is hot on their trail.

For the Jaded Jedi, finding Thrawn also means finding Ezra, assuming he survived. She is joined on her mission by Sabine Wren (former teammate, Mandalorian, and Padawan), Hera Syndulla (former teammate, pilot, and a New Republic General), and Huyang, a droid voiced by the fantastic David Tennant.

Working to foil them is Elsbeth from season 2 of The Mandalorian and two mysterious Sith. A Star Wars: Rebels fan is probably screaming their guts out while reading those paragraphs because I got so much of that synopsis wrong. But that is all I could glean from the first two episodes. And at no point was I confused.

Additionally, I never felt like Filoni was overwhelming me with information in an effort to download four seasons of information into my head. In that regard, he did a decent job.

Overall, these two episodes failed to impress. The action was well-choreographed and, in some cases, inventive. I’m intrigued by every character we met, particularly Ray Stevenson’s Baylan Skoll (which might be the actor’s final role; he died in May) and that helmeted fellow from the second episode.

I have questions. For instance, I don’t understand why they need to search for Thrawn. Why can’t he just return on his own? Is he incarcerated? It doesn’t matter. I don’t mind going on this eight-episode journey.

However, something was missing in the first two episodes. I was not particularly engaged in the Thrawn mystery. I don’t know this character. Why would his potential return matter to me? This applies to Ezra.

I have never met him. So naturally, I don’t care whether Ahsoka and Sabine find him. This is a problem because the show’s protagonists have two main objectives, and it does not matter to me whether they succeed or fail. But again, they have eight episodes to win me over.

Whatever Filoni does next, it can’t be worse than what Mandalorian (Season 2), Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan gave us.

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