Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O'Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ariana Greenblatt, Lars Mikkelsen, and Anthony Daniels also star.

In addition to Filoni, Jon Favreau, Kathleen Kennedy, and Colin Wilson returned from The Mandalorian as executive producers and were joined by Carrie Beck.

[43] Rosario Dawson was reported to be cast as Ahsoka for the second season a month later,[33] but this was not officially confirmed until the episode she appears in, "Chapter 13: The Jedi", was released in November.

[44] Dawson studied acting with Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin in the prequel films,[41] and first expressed interest in playing Ahsoka in live-action after her casting was suggested by a fan in February 2017.

[8] The new series were set in the same trimeframe as The Mandalorian—during the 30 years between the films Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and were planned to culminate in a "climactic story event";[48][49] Filoni later indicated that this would involve a conflict with the remnants of the Empire which Ahsoka helps build towards.

[54] In April 2023, the series was revealed to have eight episodes,[55] and the other directors were announced: Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, The Book of Boba Fett's Steph Green, and The Mandalorian's Rick Famuyiwa.

[69] This depiction of the character comes after Ahsoka's decision to leave the Jedi and the subsequent destruction of the Order in The Clone Wars,[70] as well as the revelation that Anakin is Darth Vader in Rebels.

[1] He wanted to depict Anakin as the "heroic older brother" and famous Jedi that Ahsoka once looked up to,[69] and prioritised seeing Christensen's performance over the Darth Vader costume which is only seen in brief flashes.

[1] For Thrawn's live-action introduction, Filoni and Favreau consulted with author Timothy Zahn, who originally created the character for the Expanded Universe (EU) novel Heir to the Empire (1991).

He researched the character online as if Ezra was a real historical figure, and chose not to watch Rebels because he did not want to be "too hokey about trying to copy a certain physicality and mannerisms" from an animated series.

[14][63] Winstead was revealed to be portraying Hera at Star Wars Celebration London in April 2023,[10] replacing Rebels voice actress Vanessa Marshall.

[18] Additionally, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee reprises his role as Captain Carson Teva from The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett,[22] and the Mandalorian's on-set double from those series, Brendan Wayne, appears as Lieutenant Lander;[30] Clancy Brown portrays Ryder Azadi, reprising his voice role from Rebels,[26] while Vinny Thomas appears as Jai Kell, who was voiced by Dante Basco in Rebels;[27] Nelson Lee plays Senator Hamato Xiono, who was introduced in the animated series Star Wars Resistance voiced by Tzi Ma;[29] and Elden Bennett appears as Star Wars film character Admiral Ackbar.

Lyvie Scott at Inverse speculated that this was due to the visual effects requirements for the character and felt his Mandalorian appearance was being used to explain his absence in Ahsoka.

[98] The lightsaber blades for Baylan and Shin are more orange than the red that is traditionally used for Star Wars antagonists, which Filoni said was an indication that the characters are not strictly villains.

Their color is based on the way Darth Vader's lightsaber would fluctuate between red and orange in some scenes of the original Star Wars films due to the older visual effects being used.

[41] She was disappointed to see that the prosthetic montrals and lekku were much shorter than their animated series look, but accepted Filoni's explanation that this was needed to accommodate for her fighting and stunts.

The new look combines the existing silvery gray color, which was inspired by previous depictions of the Nightsisters, with a new style that Sandoval described as a cross between the Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland (1951) and Lady Tremaine from Cinderella (1950).

[105] Legacy Effects returned from The Mandalorian to create puppets and animatronics for the series, including Sabine's loth-cat—a cat-like creature native to the planet Lothal.

Filoni's approach to filmmaking, based on his background in animation production, was to previsualize each episode ahead of time so he could see and work on a version of them before filming began.

[115] Filoni, the other directors, and cinematographers Eric Steelberg and Quyen Tran spent eight months creating and editing previsualizations of each episode using virtual reality cameras and headsets.

[117] The directors and cinematographers discussed the approaches to The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett, and Obi-Wan Kenobi so Ahsoka could feel like it takes place in the same universe as those series but also stand apart.

For Tales of the Jedi, which Filoni wanted to be an homage to the works of Studio Ghibli and other Japanese cinema, Sean and Deana created a new variation of Ahsoka's theme inspired by the music of samurai films.

Trying to match the visuals of Thrawn's dilapidated Star Destroyer and army, the composers slowed down the music, distorted the organ sounds, and made the score more "atmospheric".

[130][129] The in-universe song "Igyah Kah" that Sabine listens to in the first episode was co-written by Kevin and Deana Kiner, Noah Gorelick, and The Mandalorian composer Ludwig Göransson.

[138] All music by Kevin Kiner except where noted:[137][138] Filoni and Favreau promoted the series at Star Wars Celebration Anaheim on May 26, 2022, during a panel for Lucasfilm.

[81][82] Filoni, Favreau, Dawson, and Bordizzo debuted the first trailer for the series at Star Wars Celebration London on April 7, 2023,[140] with additional footage and the confirmation of Mikkelsen's casting as Thrawn coming the following day.

[151] According to Whip Media, who track viewership data for the 25 million worldwide users of their TV Time app, Ahsoka was the most anticipated new series of August 2023.

[153][154] Analytics company Samba TV, which gathers viewership data from certain Smart TVs and content providers, reported that the first episode was viewed by 1.2 million households over its first five days.

[156] Nielsen Media Research, which records streaming viewership on U.S. television screens, estimated that the first two episodes of Ahsoka were watched for 829 million minutes during its first five days.

The website's critical consensus reads, "Elevated by Rosario Dawson's strong performance in the title role and a solid story that balances new and old elements of the Star Wars saga, Ahsoka is a must-watch for fans of the franchise.