Dave Filoni has long leaned into the mythology of Star Wars, and that’s certainly the case with Ahsoka Tano.
Filoni created the character of Ahsoka while developing The Clone Wars series alongside George Lucas, and he has since been the showrunner on Rebels, creator of The Bad Batch, executive producer, director, and writer on The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, and now showrunner on Ahsoka. He’ll also be directing an upcoming Star Wars movie based on the whole Mandoverse. Yet Ahsoka remains his most prized creation, and he has long drawn inspiration from another beloved character: Gandalf, from The Lord of the Rings.
That was brought up again recently as Rosario Dawson, who plays Ahsoka in live-action, mentioned her conversations with Filoni about this connection. “In the animation, you saw her go to the white, but what I loved is the idea that there was even another level to her,” she told Entertainment Weekly. “Dave and I talked a lot about Gandalf the Gray and Gandalf the White — talking about that transition and how she’s someone very capable and excellent and looked up to as a leader, but she still has levels of development to go.”
The quote got a decent bit of traction, but it’s actually nothing new for Filoni. Back in 2015, alongside the premiere of the season two trailer for Star Wars Rebels, Filoni spoke about Ahsoka’s role in the series at New York Comic Con. Filoni said that the reason for bringing Ahsoka into the series alongside Ezra Bridger and Kanan Jarrus was this:
“she serves the story, because you can’t just bring Darth Vader into this crew. Because he’d kill them. They need a Gandalf.”
He returned to that theme in a Q&A after a screening of the Rebels season two finale, when Ahsoka’s fate was very much up in the air. After mentioning a connection between Ahsoka and Arthurian legends, Filoni then added:
“Also, I have spoken at length about Gandalf. So if you want to really understand Ahsoka in this time period and what’s happened to her, you could read Lord of the Rings, but you’ve probably seen that, but you should read it. But get the book on letters that Tolkien wrote where he explains in detail more of the things that are really going on under the surface of his characters. And I’ve used a lot of that extensively to inform what’s happening to her. So that’s some good stuff there. And people might have to go read, which is always a good thing to do.”
The host, Amy Ratcliffe, then made a joke about Ahsoka the White showing up at the Battle of Rohan, and Filoni said that she was now getting closer to the truth – but that she had to think about all that would mean for Ahsoka and her character.
Of course, in the Rebels epilogue, at the end of the very last episode of the series, in the fourth season, Ahsoka shows up to meet Sabine wearing all-white robes.
In December 2019, Ahsoka’s voice was heard by Rey as she sought strength from the Jedi of the past to rise against Palpatine. Fans assumed that meant she had died by that point, but Filoni took to Twitter to post a mysterious tease with one of his famous sketches – and, of course, it featured a conversation between Ahsoka and Gandalf.
Another example showed up when she was first brought to live-action, making her debut in The Mandalorian season two in late 2020. Filoni spoke with Vanity Fair about it, and he again hinted at her Gandalf-like status.
She is, for lack of a term, a master, because she’s largely an independent at this point. I play her much more as a knowledgeable knight. A wandering samurai character is what she really is at this point. I’ve always made comparisons to her heading toward the Gandalf stage, where she is the one that has the knowledge of the world and can help others through it. I think she’s reached that point.
And then earlier this summer, talking with Total Film Magazine, Rosario Dawson elaborated on her conversations with Filoni about Gandalf.
‘We made a lot of Gandalf references. Ahsoka the Grey… And at the end of Rebels, you get to see her in white. There is this idea of her becoming wiser, more settled in herself, and kind of exploring herself and developing in a way that I think is really remarkable for someone of that level of prowess and skill and aptitude – that there are still places to reach towards. There’s still more wisdom.’
So, again, Dave Filoni using Gandalf as inspiration for Ahsoka is nothing new. He has long patterned Ahsoka after the legendary wizard, especially as it pertains to a journey that took them both to a sort of death, only to return for a purpose. It seems we’ll be seeing Ahsoka’s journey played out in far greater detail on screen in Ahsoka, and I can’t wait.
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