After a brief detour in the pre-Original Trilogy era for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Star Wars is returning to the age of Din Djarin and friends with the upcoming Ahsoka series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson has done an incredible job of bringing the character of Ahsoka Tano to life in live-action in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and fans are definitely eager to see her take center stage in her own show.
Joining Ahsoka in her leap to live-action are, at minimum, Natasha Liu Bordizzo's Sabine Wren, Ezra Bridger, and Hera Syndulla. While the latter two have yet to have official castings, their presence in the show is all but confirmed. While the story will clearly take place in the "present" of the post-Return of the Jedi era, there has been some serious speculation about the presence of flashbacks in the show.
The use of flashbacks wouldn't be new to Star Wars, either on the big screen or on Disney+ and was seen as recently as Obi-Wan Kenobi, when viewers were given a glimpse at Hayden Christiansen's Anakin Skywalker in a series of flashbacks to his training.
A new rumor seems to promise that Ahsoka will also be following in these footsteps and providing fans a look back at the former Jedi's earlier years.
Darth Vader Rumored to Appear in Ahsoka Series
Making Star Wars has reported that Darth Vader will be making an appearance in the Ahsoka Disney+ series in at least one "significant" scene. Vader's appearance is rumored to involve fighting as Tom O'Connel—who played Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi action scenes—will be the actor playing him exclusively.
Will A Key Rebels Scene Be Recreated?
Vader's presence in Ahsoka makes perfect sense and is an absolutely natural inclusion. While it's not entirely clear what exactly he'll be doing in the show (if this rumor is accurate), there's certainly some room to speculate.
It seems clear that much of the plot of the series will focus on Ahsoka and Sabine's quest to find their mutual friend, Ezra Bridger. One of Ahsoka and Ezra's most memorable and story-important sequences was Ezra's time-altering rescue of the former Jedi from her death at the hands of Darth Vader in Rebels. It's quite possible that this scene could be recreated in Ahsoka, as there are several very important concepts (beyond just Ahsoka's survival) that it introduced.
The audience that will be tuning into Ahsoka is likely to, by and large, not have seen the entirety of Rebels and may be unfamiliar with this sequence. A recreation would serve not only to provide fanservice by showing Ahsoka facing her former master, but would also set the stage to explain the concept of the world between worlds. This place beyond space and time played an important role in Rebels, and considering that the official art for the series (pictured above) is heavily reminiscent of that locale, it is likely to appear in some capacity.
To recap: Darth Vader is dead by the time the Ahsoka series takes place, so any appearance would have to be a flashback. If Vader is to appear and will be fighting in the appearance, there's plenty of reason to believe it would be during the only known showdown between the pair in canon. In the aftermath of the events of Rebels, that encounter cannot be portrayed in its entirety without depicting Ahsoka's rescue and journey to the world between worlds.
Nothing is official, of course, but it does seem like there could very well be a live-action recreation of one of the most important story beats of Star Wars animation. Fans will have to wait and see to be certain, however. Ahsoka's release date is unconfirmed but it is likely to be sometime in 2023.
