The Biggest Star Wars Canon Change of the Year Has a Surprising Tie to the Prequels

This Star Wars: Ahsoka article contains spoilers.

Ahsoka made waves in the Star Wars universe by taking us further than any other canon project has gone before – an entirely new galaxy. Continuing the story of Star Wars Rebels, Ahsoka follows former Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) as they try to find Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), who went missing with Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelson) in the Rebels series finale. The search leads both heroes and villains to Peridia, a planet beyond the galaxy far, far away in the third act of the series. It’s the first time Star Wars has traveled beyond the franchise’s major galactic setting onscreen and, according to series creator Dave Filoni, there was a clear reason why it had to happen in Ahsoka.

Given the amount of time that passes between Ezra’s disappearance and the start of Ahsoka, approximately 10 years, Filoni knew that it would have been difficult to explain Thrawn and Ezra’s long absence had it been revealed that they were still in the primary Star Wars galaxy. In an interview with Vanity Fair, Filoni argues, “If they were in the Star Wars galaxy—the old Star Wars galaxy that we know—I think somebody would’ve found them. There’s too many starships, there’s too many people traveling. You get a signal out, and I think you could have found them if they wanted to be found. I had to really throw them far afield.”

But Filoni doesn’t take full credit for the path he ultimately took with Ahsoka, crediting George Lucas and the Prequel Trilogy with his breakthrough. “I think it’s in Attack of the Clones,” he explains. “If you look, there’s an image of the galaxy, and then there are actually these smaller galaxies near it. So I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting.’”

Given his background working with George Lucas to develop Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it’s not entirely surprising that Filoni found a hidden nugget of information in the Prequels that a lot of others probably missed. Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) even says that the Path to Peridea was told as a sort of fairy tale during his time as a youth in the Jedi Temple in the years before the Clone Wars. However, it is interesting that such a small moment inspired him to take such a big swing by introducing the Pathway to Peridea and an entirely new galaxy in Ahsoka.

Taking Star Wars to another galaxy in Ahsoka has certainly proved to be an interesting choice and further expands the types of stories that can be told. As Filoni steps into a new role as Chief Creative Officer at Lucasfilm, he’s preparing for the “long game” with regards to his projects and those that he’ll be able to help develop. “I’m setting up what seems to be a larger conflict with the Imperial remnant,” Filoni told Vanity Fair. “That conflict can’t just mirror what we’ve seen before. It has to take on a different shape. It can’t just be the Empire versus what looks like the Rebellion, or even the Republic. It has to be visually different.” 

The season one finale of Ahsoka likely won’t be the last time we see Peridea or the galaxy that the planet resides in. If a random star map in Attack of the Clones can inspire such a drastic change to the Star Wars universe, then who knows what new worlds and galaxies we could see next.

Star Wars: Ahsoka is streaming now on Disney+.