Some viewers were left scratching their heads over a particular retcon in Chapter 2 of Disney+’s Ahsoka but Lucasfilm provided an answer.
The latest Star Wars series to hit streaming is none other than Ahsoka. The show centers on the fan-favorite Jedi but also contains a very healthy amount of content which follows up on the Disney XD animated program Star Wars Rebels.
In fact, Ahsoka features several characters who are carried over from Rebels, such as Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla, and updates fans on what they’ve been up to in the canon.
The Disney+ offering even went as far as to recreate a key scene from Rebels, albeit with a few noticeable changes that ended up causing confusion for some fans over whether or not it was a retcon.
Ahsoka End Scene Confirmed as Rebels Remake
In the closing moments of Ahsoka Chapter 2, “Toil and Trouble,” Sabine looks upon the mural she painted of her and her friends, before joining up with Tano to investigate the whereabouts of Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger.
This scene was meant to be a more or less shot-for-shot replication of the last moment from the series finale of Star Wars Rebels. Most fans picked up on that, despite the fact that the two shows depicted the event slightly differently.
Now, Lucasfilm officially and irrefutably confirmed that the sequence from Ahsoka was meant to be the exact same one from Rebels, which in turn corroborates the notion that it was a retcon.
Per the studio, the moment was a “recreation” of the iconic moment:
“It’s a moment that’s familiar to 'Star Wars Rebels' fans, with a few shot-for-shot recreations of the animated series’ epilogue.”
Among the alterations made from animation was Sabine not putting on her helmet, as well as sharing a brief exchange of dialogue with Ahsoka, neither of which she did in Star Wars Rebels.
Star Wars Is No Stranger to Retcons
This Ahsoka retcon is far from a first for the Star Wars franchise. The Galaxy Far, Far Away has been making these sorts of changes for decades.
Luke and Leia were clearly not meant to be brother and sister before Return of the Jedi (ROTJ) was made (See: their kiss in the medbay on Echo Base in Empire Strikes Back). The pair were only made into siblings in the Original Trilogy capper because it better served the story that George Lucas and co. were crafting.
The Sequel Trilogy was also plenty guilty of retconning. A massive one came in the form of Emperor Palpatine still being alive, despite his demise in ROTJ. They explained this away through a cloning plot point, but it still greatly upset fans.
The continuity of these major franchises can often be a lot more fluid and malleable than fans believe, especially if the series in question has been running for a very long time. Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, for instance, has been retconning Trek’s 1960s Original Series left and right, both in terms of visuals and stories.
Not all retcons need to be a bad thing, and for long-form fictional storytelling, they’re sometimes a necessity.
Star Wars: Ahsoka drops new episodes every Tuesday on Disney+ with the next one arriving on September 12.
