Why one upcoming Star Wars show can fix Ahsoka's Mandalorian backstory
In Andor, we've been promised "familiar faces" from Star Wars. But what does that mean?
The most dangerous agent in the Rebel Alliance is back. However, when Cassian Andor returns for the Disney+ series Star Wars: Andor, he won’t be alone.
New comments from Andor’s star Diego Luna indicate that the new show — set before the events of Rogue One — will feature other famous Star Wars folks, too.
“You’ll definitely see familiar faces,” Luna said in a recent interview.
But who could turn up on Andor? Because of its placement in the Star Wars timeline, there are a lot of possibilities. But, perhaps the most interesting one would be a certain wayward Jedi named Ahsoka Tano.
Here’s why an appearance from Ahsoka in Andor would be great for that series and how it also could help button-up some missing parts of her pre-Mando chronology, too. Wild speculation ahead for Star Wars: Andor and Star Wars: Ahsoka.
Ahsoka in Star Wars: Andor
Ahsoka in The Mandalorian.
According to Diego Luna, the primary filming for Star Wars: Andor has been completed, which means the show will premiere on Disney+ sometime in 2022. Also, because Cassian Andor is alive in this show, the series will take place five years before Rogue One and A New Hope.
In Star Wars canon, 5 BBY is also the same year that Rebels begins. And by the end of that year, it’s revealed that Ahsoka is secretly a Rebel informant named “Fulcrum.”
If Andor intersects with the timeline of Rebels, then it makes perfect sense that Ahsoka would make not just one, but perhaps, several appearances in the show. At this point in the Star Wars timeline, Ahsoka is working as an intelligence operative for the Alliance. Guess what? That’s the branch of the Alliance that Cassian works in, too.
In fact, at one point, Cassian Andor also used the codename “Fulcrum.” In Star Wars canon, the idea of the “Fulcrum” codename for Rebel spies originated with Ahsoka (even though she borrowed the code word from Anakin.) The point is if both Cassian and Ahsoka worked in early intelligence gathering for the Alliance, and both used the codename “Fulcrum,” it would be bizarre if we didn’t see her in this show. It’s even possible that Cassian recruited Ahsoka. Or maybe the other way around?
Star Wars: Andor could explain The Mandalorian and Ahsoka
Cassian and K-2SO in Rogue One.
By the time of The Mandalorian (9 ABY), roughly 11 to 14 years will have passed since the events of Andor. Although we know what Ahsoka was doing in Rebels, right before the events of Rogue One, there are still a few missing pieces of her Rebellion backstory that could help inform what she’s doing in the “present” timeline of both The Mandalorian and her own forthcoming eponymous spinoff show.
If Ahsoka is in Andor, it’s reasonable we’ll mostly see her before the events of Rebels. That said, if time passes during the events of Andor and we get close to 0 BBY (the year of Rogue One and A New Hope), then we might get more of an idea of what happened to Ahsoka after the events of “The World Between Worlds.”
After Ezra used time travel shenanigans to rescue Ahsoka in that episode (again 0 BBY), we don’t really know what happened between that moment and the coda of Rebels set right after Return of the Jedi (4 ABY). If Ahsoka does appear in Andor — and there’s a time jump — then the show about Cassian could suddenly become the perfect segway into the show about Ahsoka.
But, even if Andor doesn’t catch up to “The World Between Worlds,” betting on Ahsoka in the first season, five years before Rogue One is a very good bet.
Although we have all of her adventures in Rebels, there’s plenty of other adventures Ahsoka could have had as “Fulcrum” while she was offscreen in that series. Especially if she teamed up with another agent with the exact same codename.
Star Wars: Andor debuts on Disney+ sometime in 2022
