The ‘Star Wars: Ahsoka’ Trailer Has Everything ‘The Mandalorian’ Lacks

Something has been bugging me about Season 3 of The Mandalorian since it premiered a month ago. The premiere felt off and the show has yet to really regain its footing. We’re now over halfway through Season 3 and, instead of experiencing the return of that old Mandalorian magic in an episode of The Mandalorian, I found it in the first trailer for an entirely different Star Wars show: Star Wars: Ahsoka. This first look at the Rosario Dawson-led series made me feel all of that childlike excitement again — the feeling I would get 28 years ago when I’d dump out a neon-colored duffel bag of Power of the Force action figures and start plotting my next adventure.

The Star Wars: Ahsoka trailer has everything that The Mandalorian Season 3 is missing — namely, insurmountable stakes, a conflicted and engaging protagonist, and an overall vision.

The stakes in Star Wars: Ahsoka are incredibly clear. Grand Admiral Thrawn is back! This is a chilling development, even for those who didn’t watch Star Wars Rebels or spend their childhood scouring the sci-fi section of their local library for Star Wars novels. His name is Grand Admiral Thrawn! That name just screams trouble!

Even so, knowing that not everyone is gonna drop jaws over one solitary shot of the back of an Imperial’s head, the trailer introduces multiple evil Force-wielders, swinging red lightsabers around all menacingly and pontificating on the nature of power. It even looks like Ahsoka’s fighting an Inquisitor, possibly a straggler from the old Imperial regime. There are threats all over the place and a very tangible set of stakes. Stakes don’t get higher than the Empire striking back (and as current world events demonstrate, old fascistic regimes always strike back).

Then there’s The Mandalorian Season 3. We’re now six episodes deep into this eight-episode season and I still don’t know what the point is. Who is the antagonist, Pirate King Swamp Thing? While I love Gorian Shard’s energy, Bossk was more threatening in his two seconds of screen time than all of Gorian Shard’s pirates combined.

Is the main threat Moff Gideon? If so, where is he? Or, since I respect holding Giancarlo Esposito back for a grand entrance later in the season, where are his machinations? We’ve seen a couple of tiny hints about Moff Gideon so far this season, but they’re not the steady drumbeat that they should be. And what are the stakes in The Mandalorian Season 3? It surely cannot be the retaking of Mandalore. Take it from who? We’ve already been to the planet and it is empty! Just move back in! Y’all truly have your pick of millions of apartments!

The bigger problem, though, lies within The Mandalorian’s protagonist and cast. First, look at Ahsoka. “Warrior. Outcast. Rebel. Jedi.” The trailer uses those four descriptors to introduce Ahsoka to an even larger audience, and they are apt. They also convey a number of contradictions that instantly make Ahsoka a captivating lead. She’s somehow a warrior and a Jedi (remember Yoda’s “wars not make one great”). She’s a rebel and a Rebel, against the restrictive Jedi code and against the Empire. She’s an outcast, low-status, an underdog. Warrior. Outcast. Rebel. Jedi. There is a lot going on there — and we can feel that, through Dawson’s world-weary performance and the way others, particularly Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) interact with her.

This is a major problem with The Mandalorian Season 3. Din Djarin’s character arc concluded, definitively, with the Season 2 finale when he accepted Grogu as his son, chose his son over his religion, and then did what he believed to be best for Grogu (handing him over to Luke Skywalker for training). This loner bounty hunter whose religion very literally kept him from revealing himself to anyone had grown beyond all of that. He’d found a purpose, an identity, and forged a clan through a real, soulful bond and not through just a general adherence to “the way.” Instead of pushing Din forward, Season 3 has seen him regress — and bring Grogu along for the ride. This Din is somehow more stoic and more dogmatic than he was in “Chapter 1.” And instead of pairing him up with literally anyone who can challenge him on literally anything (remember how Bill Burr of all people instigated the most profound and insightful commentary on religion ever made in all of Star Wars?), Season 3 has surrounded Din with a crowd of faceless believers and even indoctrinated Bo-Katan Kryze (Katee Sackhoff).

I’m just saying: imagine a season of Mandalorian where he had to take Peli Motto along for every adventure instead of another Mandolorian who is, from heart to helmet, basically the same character. It writes itself.

And that brings us to the most glaring difference between not only Star Wars: Ahsoka and The Mandalorian Season 3 but between Mandalorian Season 2 and 3. It should come as no surprise that Star Wars: Ahsoka appears to have everything that The Mandalorian Season 3 lacks because Star Wars: Ahsoka has Dave Filoni. The mastermind behind the animated series The Clone Wars and Rebels, Filoni played a massive part in building The Mandalorian’s first two seasons. But due to his spearheading Ahsoka, Filoni most likely took a big step back on Mando Season 3 — and I think it shows. We have years and years of Filoni-led storytelling to look at, and it’s clear that he’s long prioritized character above all else. He has such a clear approach to storytelling, an approach that feels very rooted in the Joseph Campbell monomyth to which George Lucas was so devoted.

If the Star Wars: Ahsoka trailer, with its scrappy swashbucklers and pilots nobly diving headfirst into battle against dark knights and wizards, feels like the most Star Wars-y thing you’ve seen in a while… that’s why. Filoni is a student who low-key became the master a while ago, while the mainstream wasn’t looking (re: watching Clone Wars and Rebels).

Ultimately, I don’t know who Jon Favreau is as a storyteller. I know who he is as an innovator — the guy who mixes old-school models with cutting-edge digital wizardry — and as a producer. I know more about Favreau as a comedic performer than a writer. Hell, I bet there is a hilarious Happy Hogan short film in Favreau just waiting for a green light and space in his schedule. I don’t know what he’s trying to say with The Mandalorian Season 3, but I can feel in my bones what Filoni contributed to Mandalorian Seasons 1-2.

That’s why, as down on Star Wars as I feel right now, I feel a lot of hope for Star Wars: Ahsoka. The trailer alone gives us a protagonist that we care about, stakes that we feel, and a clear artistic vision. It’s fitting because if any one character is going to inspire hope, it should be Ahsoka Tano.