Star Wars Rebels Character Makes Live-Action Debut in Ahsoka, and Fans Are Loving It

Star Wars: Ahsoka is continuing its journey, and the series is definitely taking a unique approach to weaving in lore from the larger Star Wars galaxy. The series continues the events of many of the franchise’s previous animated series, particularly Star Wars: Rebels — and now, that has included the arrival of a fan-favorite character. Spoilers for the third episode of Star Wars: Ahsoka below! Only look if you want to know!

Part of the episode concerned Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her efforts to inform the New Republic that Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) might secretly be alive. Once she does so, Hera steps out into the hallway and is greeted by her son, Jacen (Evan Whitten), who asks about Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and reveals that he wants to be a Jedi.

Who Is Jacen Syndulla?

Jacen was introduced at the end of Rebels‘ series finale, as the child of Hera and the late Kanan Jarrus. Borrowing his first name from Leia and Han’s son in the Star Wars Legends canon, Jacen has only briefly appeared in the Star Wars universe prior to this Ahsoka appearance, but he remains a buzzed-about part of the Rebels canon. It had previously been rumored that Jacen would play a role in Ahsoka, after an official LEGO set for the series featured a minifig of him.

“I have not given a lot of thought to where that goes, to be honest,” creator Dave Filoni explained in a 2018 interview. “That doesn’t mean that we wouldn’t in the future. I’m already getting asked internally a lot about it from people here [at Lucasfilm]. Creatives here. So that’s good. I like that… It seemed, in a very small way, naming him ‘Jacen’ was a way to honor the expanded universe character of Jacen Solo who just really isn’t there anymore as the timelines have changed. I thought that’s a little bit of a wink to people that I know that was an important character. And maybe, in some way, that lives on through this character. I don’t know yet.”

What Is Star Wars: Ahsoka About?

Fan-favorite Star Wars hero Ahsoka Tano returns in the brand new series on Disney+. Rosario Dawson stars in Star Wars: Ahsoka, which premiered on August 22nd on the streamer. The series picks up after the events of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett, in which we saw the former Jedi searching for Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) and helping Luke Skywalker train Grogu. Ahsoka will be joined on her new mission alongside longtime allies Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) and Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) as they attempt to track down Thrawn, who was last seen disappearing to the far reaches of space after a confrontation with Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi). Star Wars: Ahsoka is the latest live-action series from Lucasfilm’s creative duo of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni.

Keep scrolling to check out the reactions to live-action Jacen Syndulla, and share your thoughts with us in the comments below!