It’s been three years since the premiere of Ahsoka, Dave Filoni’s live-action follow up to his 2014 animated series Star Wars: Rebels. The Disney Plus show won’t deliver a payoff for its cliffhanger finale until 2027, but attendees of the annual D23 fan event in Anaheim, California got a first look at the threats facing the former Jedi Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) and the New Republic with a teaser trailer reveal.

Star Wars fans also got a release date for Ahsoka season 2: The show returns to Disney Plus on Jan. 20, 2027.

In season 1, Ahsoka and her Mandalorian apprentice Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) traveled to the planet Peridia to look for Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi), a Jedi who disappeared at the end of Rebels. He had been stranded on the planet along with the Imperial officer Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen), and both escaped at the end of the season. Ezra was reunited with his surrogate mom, General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), warning her that their old enemy had also returned with the power to threaten the New Republic.

Ahsoka and Sabine stayed behind on Peridia, where they'll face a more cosmic threat in season 2. Rome and RRR star Ray Stevenson passed after completing Ahsoka season 1, and the role of the former Jedi Baylan Skoll will now be played by Game of Thrones star Rory McCann. While Skoll and his apprentice Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) came to Peridia in the employ of Thrawn’s allies, Skoll’s goal was always to seek out ancient power there.

The first season ended with Skoll encountering statues of the Mortis gods, who are embodiments of different aspects of the Force. Hati wasn’t as interested in her master's spiritual quest, instead taking over a group of bandits. Ahsoka is strongly associated with the Daughter, the Mortis god who represents the light side of the Force, and she’ll likely have to connect further to that aspect in order to disrupt whatever Skoll has planned.

While 2026 was a great year for Star Wars animation thanks to the stylish and narratively rich shows Maul: Shadow Lord and The Ninth Jedi, the franchise’s sole live action outing, The Mandalorian and Grogu, received middling reviews and was a box office flop. Ahsoka season 2 and Star Wars: Starfighter, which will release on May 28, 2027, will be a critical test of what fans are looking for in Star Wars stories, and whether big-budget live action projects are still worth investing in.