'Ahsoka' takes 'Star Wars' to a new galaxy for the 1st time, finally pays off 2 long-awaited live-action debuts

WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Ahsoka.

The sixth episode of Ahsoka included a few major payoffs it had been teasing this season, including more live-action debuts of some major fan favorite characters and a voyage that has never been seen before in Star Wars.

In the episode, the villain Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) and her crew completed their extragalactic journey and arrived in an entirely new galaxy — a first in the world of Star Wars lore, and a move that could literally open up a whole new world of evil and good for the franchise.

Thrawn’s big entrance

It's here that viewers were finally treated to the first live-action appearance of Grand Admiral Thrawn (played by Lars Mikkelsen), who first popped up in a 1991 Star Wars book and then later in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. And sure enough, he pulled up in his iconic Star Destroyer ship called the Chimaera.

The Daily Beast described the long-awaited entrance like this: “Here he is! Thrawn is menacing with his promises to destroy all the good guys, sure. But I can’t take him seriously because he looks like a member of the Blue Man Group. The beady red eyes add to the villainous appearance, but in comparison to the caped Baylan, the devilish Shin, and Morgan Elsbeth, a witch who wants to destroy all Jedi, Thrawn feels a little tame. But we haven’t seen him in action — except in Rebels, but then, he was animated — so I’ll wait to fully cast judgment until that point.”

And Entertainment Weekly took note of Thrawn’s nostalgia-inducing appearance that included a group of beat-up looking Storm Troopers — called Night Troopers — who looked like they’ve seen a thing or two: “Making his way dramatically down a line of chanting Night Troopers led by a dude in a creepy gold mask named Captain Enoch… The icy cold and calculating appearance of Thrawn was exhilarating.”

Ezra is found

Next up was the live-action introduction of another Rebels favorite, Ezra Bridger, who is the reason Sabine Wren decided to join the bad guys on this journey to another galaxy, so she could track down her friend.

And, well, it worked, as described by Entertainment Weekly: “Sabine battled off some bandits and found Ezra (played by Eman Esfandi), as the Jedi was just kind of chillin' with a group of praying mantis meets turtle looking hybrids called Noti… While the duo hugged and engaged in some light and frothy banter, Ezra's final line of ‘I can't wait to go home’ may not come true with two Force sensitive mercenaries on their tail and a brilliant tactician aided by witches about to power on out of the galaxy.”

And if the mention of Noti has piqued any interest, the Daily Beast added this: “The Noti are adorable — almost like Ewoks if they were made of rock instead of fur.”

What’s next?

The show’s titular character, Rosario Dawson’s Ahsoka, is also on the way to the next galaxy over via a ride with a giant space whale called a Purrgil. When Thrawn caught wind of their impending arrival, he turned to his trio of powerful-looking, witch-like friends called the Great Mothers and delivered the final, and most eerie, line of the episode.

“I shall once again require the aid of your dark magic.”

New episodes of Ahsoka are released Tuesdays on Disney+.