The next Star Wars project set to be released is going to tackle the big task of finally fixing the sequel trilogy, seven years after The Rise of Skywalker. Though the sequel trilogy of Star Wars movies were a big financial hit, they had their fair share of problems. From divisive writing decisions like Palpatine's hasty return to struggles with consistency between movies, the sequel trilogy needs some fixing.
Disney and Lucasfilm, for their part, have been trying to fix the sequel trilogy for years now. The Mandoverse has been building up the Imperial Remnants to explain the rise of the First Order, Star Wars shows like The Bad Batch have been explaining Palpatine's return by investigating his secret cloning program, and dozens of comics and novels have been giving the sequels' main characters more personality and things to do.
None of the Star Wars stories of the past seven years have been able to really make the sequel trilogy work, though. The sequels still haven't gone through the same renaissance the prequel trilogy had, but an upcoming series may finally be ready to change that. Ahsoka season 2, which is set to premiere on Disney+ on January 20, can finally fix the sequel trilogy and set Star Wars on the right path again.
Based on what Star Wars has revealed about Ahsoka season 2 so far, it seems that the next chapter in Ahsoka Tano's story could finally tell the story that the sequel trilogy should have. One of the reasons the sequels were so divisive is because fans were expecting something else out of the trilogy's story. The story of Rey Skywalker and the next generation of Star Wars reckoning with the legacy of the past was good, but it also felt like Star Wars was just restarting with a new story and characters. A lot of viewers wanted something more directly tied to the original trilogy.
New concept art reveals that the upcoming second season of Ahsoka could stumble into a major continuity problem regarding Star Wars canon.
Now, Ahsoka season 2 is ready to give fans exactly that. As the trailer for Ahsoka season 2 teased, the new season is primarily dealing with Grand Admiral Thrawn as he leads a good chunk of the Imperial Remnants in a battle against the New Republic. The peace that Luke Skywalker and company established is being put to the test, the fate of the Empire is a main focus, and Ahsoka season 2 is shaping up to be a very direct sequel to Return of the Jedi.
Thrawn isn't the only part of Ahsoka season 2 that feels like a direct sequel to both the original and prequel trilogies, though. Ahsoka is also continuing to speak with Anakin's Force ghost, which should let the show examine Anakin's redemption and Vader's legacy in more detail than the sequel trilogy ever did. Ahsoka herself also has deep ties to The Clone Wars, and characters from Rebels, like Sabine and Ezra, are also going to play a big role.
Ahsoka season 2, and really the Mandoverse at large, feels like a follow-up to Return of the Jedi and the original trilogy, which is what the sequels should have done from the start. Rather than simply renaming the Empire into the First Order and doing another "Chosen One" story with Rey instead of Luke, the sequels should have examined the fallout of the Galactic Civil War and shown how the galaxy rebuilt. Ahsoka is doing just that.
Ahsoka season 2 is telling the story the sequel trilogy should have been built around, but it also has a chance to make the story the sequels ended up with even better. As previously mentioned, the Mandoverse that Ahsoka is part of has already done a lot to make the story of the sequels more coherent. The Mandoverse laid the groundwork for the First Order, for Palpatine's resurrection, and for the New Republic's eventual fall, and Ahsoka season 2 can take it even further.
Thanks mostly to Thrawn and his campaign against the New Republic, Ahsoka season 2 can write the final chapter of how the Empire morphed into the First Order. The show will finally reveal which parts of the Imperial Remnants hid out in Wild Space and which ones were vanquished. In the same story, Ahsoka season 2 can do even more to set up the New Republic as an incompetent government and explain why Leia had to start the Resistance.
Baylan Skoll's hunt for the Mortis gods on Peridea can also give Ahsoka season 2 a chance to get into some of the Force elements at play in the sequel trilogy. It's impossible to predict what he'll find there, but Skoll could easily discover some explanation for Rey and Kylo Ren's Force dyad, some mention of the Sith Eternal, or at least some explanation of why balance in the Force is unsustainable.
Perhaps most importantly, Ahsoka season 2 has a chance to finish what The Mandalorian started and fully explain Palpatine's return. The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch started hinting at Project Necromancer and the experiments being done to bring Palpatine back, but they never fully bridged the gap to explain his return. Ahsoka can finally finish this patch job, either by having Thrawn involved in the project or something else. This is a big chance to fix the sequel trilogy of Star Wars movies.
