The fact that the new episode of “Ahsoka” on Disney+ refers to the famous opening words with which George Lucas once began “Star Wars” is no coincidence. After all, this episode fulfils a dream he cherished from the very beginning…
“Far, Far Away” is the name of the sixth episode of “Ahsoka”, which can now be streamed on Disney+. The title refers to the famous words at the beginning of every “Star Wars” film, which droid Huyang (David Tenannt) also explicitly utters when he tells Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) one of the stories from his archive: “Once upon a time, in a galaxy far, far away …”
With this introduction, it becomes clear right at the beginning of the episode that we are seeing something this episode that is new to “Star Wars” in this form, but was always planned by George Lucas. We are exploring a new galaxy. It should come as no surprise after the previous five episodes that director Jennifer Getzinger (“Mad Men”) now gives us another galaxy in episode 6. We see for the first time the place where Ezra Bridger (Eman Esfandi) and Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) have been all these years. We also meet Thrawn’s army there, led by the new character Captain Enoch (Wes Chatham).
While the location and all the characters are sure to become important to the series, exploring another galaxy is already a game-changing experience in the “Star Wars” saga – one we’ve been waiting decades for.
MULTIPLE GALAXIES IN “STAR WARS”: ALREADY GEORGE LUCAS SHOWS THAT
Because “Star Wars” fans have known for a long time that there are multiple galaxies. Actually, the opening words already refer to it, which are now picked up by the episode title. After all, a “galaxy far, far away” can only exist if there is also at least one more from which it can be “far, far away”.
In addition, other galaxies were alluded to several times in the films – for example in the prequels. Because George Lucas originally had the plan to explore various such worlds very early on. Strictly speaking, even one scene in the original trilogy takes place outside the galaxy that was actually at the centre of the saga: the end of “The Empire Strikes Back”.
The sequel to “A New Hope”, released in 1980 as the second “Star Wars” film at the time, ends with a scene in which the crew of the Falcon and the fleet of the Rebel Alliance gather at a secret location.
As you could always watch again above this paragraph embedded video itself, C-3PO, R2-D2, Luke (Mark Hamill) and Leia (Carrie Fisher) are looking out the window at not one planet, but the entire galaxy. The scene reveals that they have retreated from the Empire to a place outside the galaxy – after all, they can only look at the whole galaxy from such a place outside. This was also confirmed in 2003 by Leland Chee, who was George Lucas’ mouthpiece on canon issues at the time.
George Lucas then decided not to pursue the concept of different galaxies any further with “Return of the Jedi Knights”. It seemed too complicated to him to accommodate it in the final part of the original trilogy with so many important storylines. For Lucas, however, it was clear that this would be pursued more intensively later. In numerous novels from the non-canon extended Legends universe, this is then also the case. As many as seven different galaxies are known from there.
“Ahsoka” creator Dave Filoni, who was a close collaborator of George Lucas, does not reinvent the “Star Wars” universe with “Ahsoka”. He does break new ground by letting us explore another galaxy in more detail for the first time in a canon series, but he follows the path set by Lucas. It remains exciting whether the existence of several galaxies will continue to be used in the future – at some point perhaps even entire stories will be told that are set in another “galaxy far, far away”.
