The original Star Wars movie, A New Hope, celebrates its 50th anniversary next year, hence why 2027 has a stacked line-up of new releases from the galaxy far, far away. The most anticipated of these are the theatrical rerelease of the original cut of A New Hope itself, as well as Ryan Gosling and Shawn Levy’s new film, Starfighter. But even sooner is the long-awaited return of one of the franchise’s most important TV shows.
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The second season of Star Wars: Ahsoka will premiere on January 20, 2027, on Disney+. But while the titular former Jedi, played in live-action media by Rosario Dawson, has a strong core fanbase that is always eager to see her next adventure, it may be difficult for the new episodes to achieve the same kind of wide success as Star Wars’ most popular projects. Recently, fans took note that the gap between the two seasons is the largest between any two seasons of a live-action Star Wars series – and its true.
As of January 20, it will have been 1205 days since the first season’s finale was released in October 2023. While Ahsoka does have some unique circumstances that partially justify the unusually lengthy hiatus, it’s still easy to imagine that the gap could have a negative impact on the new season’s viewership. The hiatus is also a particularly extreme example of two separate trends working together for a not-so-great result: long gaps between seasons of high-budget streaming series and troubled productions for recent Star Warsprojects, specifically. The high production values that make blockbuster series like Ahsoka popular also tend to make the processes of developing and shooting their individual seasons take significantly longer than they do for traditional broadcast and cable series, which typically release new seasons once a year or even more frequently.
Fans of these series, especially those which use extensive amounts of visual effects as Disney+’s live action Star Wars and Marvel shows do, have grown accustomed to hiatuses of roughly two years. In some cases, little, if any, development work on subsequent seasons is even started before the first season is released and its performance evaluated, which can further delay new episodes.
Nevertheless, a hiatus of nearly four years is still uncommon, though Ahsoka Season 2 did face one unique challenge that partially accounts for its slow development: Ray Stevenson, a member of the series’ main cast, passed away months before Season 1’s release. Stevenson played Baylan Skoll, a former Jedi who turned to the Dark Side of the Force (without becoming an actual Sith Lord) after the rise of the Galactic Empire, and the character as well as his performance were some of the most widely praised aspects of the series. Baylan is still active at the end of Season 1, with a cliffhanger suggesting that he will become even more prominent going forward, so in order for the series to progress its story as originally intended, the role had to be recast. Rory McCann plays the role in Season 2. His casting was not announced until early 2025, after a respectful mourning period for Stevenson.
Ahsoka Is a Niche Star Wars Series With High Stakes
This situation makes the gap between Ahsoka’s seasons more understandable, but that gap could still prove problematic for Season 2. While some of TV’s most widely viewed and acclaimed series, like HBO’s House of the Dragon, or even fellow Star Wars series Andor are so popular that most of their fans are willing to wait as long as they have to for new episodes, sometimes even gaining new fans who discover them during the intervals, other shows have seemingly lost momentum because of such gaps, with viewership numbers declining for later seasons.
The Star Wars franchise has experienced similar problems with recent series and even films. Andor and another TV hit, Obi-Wan Kenobi, featured main characters from the film series with beloved actors reprising their roles. But more obscure series like The Acolyte and Skeleton Crew, which focused on establishing new characters and corners of the franchise, with few widely recognizable faces, were much less successful. Even The Mandalorian, the initially massive hit Ahsokaspun off from, experienced a decline in viewership during its third season – which was released more than two years after its second (albeit before its spin-off movie The Mandalorian & Grogu flopped with critics and at the box office earlier this year).
Like Ahsoka, The Mandalorian Season 3 and the movie were both heavily rooted in established Star Warslore, continuing storylines and featuring characters from an assortment of other series and more niche properties. Indeed, while Ahsoka, who was originally created for the 2008 animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars, is beloved among dedicated fans of Star Wars TV, there are plenty of fans who only watch the movies and/or select shows like Andor and Obi-Wan Kenobi that require less “homework” to fully appreciate, and may be unaware of the character or show.
And, again, the casual fans who did watch Season 1 are exactly the kind of viewers the show is at risk of losing because of the gap. The core Ahsoka fanbase, along with those of the projects it’s most closely tied to like Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels, are still likely strong enough to ensure a decent performance for Season 2. What’s more uncertain is if there’s enough interest for a third season or other kind of continuation of the story. Given The Mandalorian & Grogu debacle, many have speculated that its specific corner of the franchise may be nearing its end, with some even wondering if Star Wars will take a break from live action TV altogether – at least after Dave Filoni’s alleged Endgame-like team-up movie that will unite all the Star Wars TV series into a massive big screen payoff.
What do you think of Ahsoka‘s long hiatus? Sound off in the comments!
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