Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 gets a premiere date and Hayden Christensen is back

Star Wars: Ahsoka returns to Disney+ on January 20, 2027 — more than three years after the first season wrapped. Disney dropped a teaser trailer at D23, confirming the full cast and a plot that leans hard into both prequel nostalgia and the show's Expanded Universe roots.

The returning cast

Rosario Dawson is back as Ahsoka Tano, alongside Natasha Liu Bordizzo (Sabine Wren), Mary Elizabeth Winstead (Hera Syndulla), and Eman Esfandi (Ezra Bridger). Lars Mikkelsen returns as Grand Admiral Thrawn, who has now crossed back into the main galaxy and is actively moving against the New Republic. Admiral Ackbar — yes, that Admiral Ackbar — is confirmed to face him directly, per StarWars.com D23 official.

Hayden Christensen reprises Anakin Skywalker, appearing both as a Force ghost guiding a struggling Ahsoka and in Clone Wars-era flashbacks showing a younger version of the character. The approach mirrors what worked in Obi-Wan Kenobi, betting that audiences who grew up with the prequels are now ready to revisit them without irony.

Rory McCann — best known as The Hound in Game of Thrones — steps into the role of Baylan Skoll, following the death of original cast member Ray Stevenson in 2023.

What the season is about

Ahsoka and Sabine remain stranded on Peridea at the start of the season, while Thrawn's return to the core galaxy sets the main conflict in motion. The trailer also showed the first live-action footage of Dathomir, the planet central to the lore of the Nightsisters and Darth Maul's origins. Dave Filoni, who created the character of Ahsoka for The Clone Wars animated series, is directing.

The story draws directly from Timothy Zahn's Heir to the Empire trilogy — the novels that defined the Expanded Universe in the early 1990s and introduced Thrawn as a villain. Bringing that material into live-action canon has been a long-running fan demand, according to Looper's breakdown.

Budget and stakes

Season 1 cost roughly $100 million across eight episodes. Star Wars News Net reports the second season is working with a smaller budget, though Disney has not confirmed a figure. Space battles and new planetary locations are still in — the trailer confirms at least that much.

Season 2 of Ahsoka premieres January 20, 2027, exclusively on Disney+.