Star Wars Rebels ended on a major cliffhanger, leaving us to wonder what became of Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn after they were pulled into hyperspace by the mysterious purgil.
The animated series ended by teasing Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren’s plans to set out and find their missing friend, and the former’s live-action debut in The Mandalorian confirmed that her hunt for Thrawn continues. He and Ezra vanished prior to A New Hope, and with Ahsoka set five years after Return of the Jedi, we’re guessing they’ve been through a lot during that period.
Talking to Empire (via SFFGazette.com), Sabine actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo teased her character’s desire to find Ezra.
“She feels an obligation to him. When they freed Lothal, she was given this hero status. But she doesn’t feel that she’s earned that because she lost her friend in that whole debacle. She’s just focused on the promise she made to him to find him.”
Showrunner Dave Filoni, who was in charge of Rebels and now spearheads Ahsoka, also weighed in to discuss what that epilogue was laying the groundwork for.
“Even at the time I did the Rebels epilogue, I felt like, ‘If I go forward with this, this has to be challenging in another way,'” he explains. “And the challenge was going to be live-action. I wanted to resolve these things with [Ahsoka], but I wanted to do something new with it.”
Original plans called for an animated follow-up, but that was later transformed into Ahsoka, a series we imagine will be a crucial chapter in the wider story Filoni and Jon Favreau are telling across these TV shows.
A live-action spin on the aforementioned Rebels scene can be seen in the Tweet below.
EXCLUSIVE 🚨
Sabine Wren “feels an obligation” to find Ezra Bridger in #Ahsoka, says Natasha Liu Bordizzo: “She’s focused on the promise she made,” she tells Empire.
READ MORE: https://t.co/TmFiSYupxt pic.twitter.com/7XJN4USpzJ
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) June 3, 2023