The Mandalorian
Ahsoka
Skeleton Crew
The Book of Boba Fett
The four series that comprise Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s “Mandoverse” that, according to the big reveal at SWCE 2023, will culminate with Filoni’s feature film, seems to be, as the ‘Ahsoka’ trailer has strongly hinted at, a Canon reinterpretation of the seminal Expanded Universe works, Timothy Zahn’s ‘Heir to the Empire’ trilogy.
After introducing Ahsoka into the live action realm, a spin-off series was inevitable given the character’s popularity and, montrail length aside, the reception to Rosario Dawson’s portrayal. Pair that with the long gestating rumours that Filoni had been working on a sequel series to ‘Star Wars: Rebels’ which ended on the massive cliffhanger with Thrawn and Ezra being whisked away by the Purgill and Ahsoka arriving to take Sabine on some sort of mission (which we all assumed was to find Ezra), and Ahsoka’s Thrawn name drop in ‘The Mandalorian’ it wasn’t hard to put two and two together. And then, the huge ‘Heir to the Empire’ connection, Captain Pellaeon, appearing in ‘The Mandalorian – Chapter 23: The Spies’ and the whole conversation about Thrawn’s return to lead The Imperial Remnant, the foundations for Filoni’s film are being well and truly laid.
Filoni isn’t adverse to bringing elements from the ‘Legends’ timeline into the ‘Canon’. As far back as ‘The Clone Wars’ he has had various ideas, going as far as to make designs for the Yuuzhan Vong to appear in the series at some point. ‘Rebels’ introduced the Hammerhead Corvettes from ‘The Old Republic’ era and of course in Season 3 he introduced the Grand Admiral himself and his iconic flagship, The Chimera. Jump to Season 4 and he brought fan favourite characters Rukh and Captain Pellaeon.
Of course, ‘The Bad Batch’ and ‘The Mandalorian’ have had their ‘Legends’ elements. Ahsoka sends Din and Grogu to the planet Tython during ‘The Mandalorian’ and the Season 1 finale of ‘The Bad Batch’ introduced another element from the ‘Heir to the Empire’ series, Mount Tantiss.
Given the reveal in Season 1, the infamous Imperial Facility seemed to be left by the wayside in Season 2, however, in hindsight the Second Season was building to its seemingly hefty inclusion in Season 3.
I’m getting the feeling that it’s introduction in Season 1 was part of a Filoni long game, introducing more elements from ‘Heir to the Empire’ in anticipation of ‘Ahsoka’. Whilst this could be unlikely given that animation works years ahead of release, it’s entirely possible that all of Season 3 is either in the can or almost there and Filoni and his team have the first season of the next animated series well on its way. But this is Dave Filoni, the man who always seems to have a plan.
I’m not going to lie folks, I am insanely looking forward to Filoni’s film, I’ve loved ‘The Mandalorian’ and ‘The Book of Boba Fett’ and everything I’ve heard about ‘Ahsoka’ and ‘Skeleton Crew’ has got me hyped for anything that Favreau and Filoni will throw at us in the run up to Thrawn’s cinematic debut.
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