The ‘Mandalorian’ Character Designer Explained Ahsoka Tano’s Smaller Head Tails
By George Robbins
There are a lot of franchises out there nowadays trying their best to grab the attention of people of all ages by appealing to the things they like. Perhaps one of the most unique franchises out there right now is the Star Wars franchise which has become wildly successful since the release of the original film in 1977. Directed by George Lucas, the original ‘Star Wars‘ was a film that had never really been done before and this was heavily reflected in the vast popularity of the movie both on release and post-release. It has been noted on a number of occasions that no one is really sure why the movie has become so popular as time has gone on. Even George Lucas thought that the movie would end up being a failure, but this turned out to be the exact opposite of how things would end up turning out in the end.
The unprecedented success of the first film made it easy for them to eventually come out with ‘The Empire Strikes Back‘ which would soon be followed by ‘Return of the Jedi.’ What many people found interesting about the movies was not the actual stories of the films so much as the universe that the stories take place in. There are plenty of people that like the movies because of the stories, but that is far from the only thing that people like it for. In the end, it was the expansive universe that ended up drawing people in and got them involved in the lore of the movies and how they have continued to be so involved with the films as time has gone on. The universe that all of the Star Wars content is set in gave rise to countless stories over the years that fans have fallen in love with and it has become obvious that few sci-fi stories could be told the same way today.
There are plenty of science fiction universes out there that have expansive stories involved with them, but Star Wars has succeeded in getting people invested because of the premise. The story focuses entirely on a separate galaxy from the one that we reside in and the stories are set thousands of years in the past which has given food for thought to countless people over the years. It is a setting that has allowed people to weave their own intricate narratives that may not even have anything to do with the stories from the films, but they have become wildly popular with people over the years. Over time, the number of stories being written about the Star Wars universe had managed to reach a point where things started getting out of hand for the most part. People began wondering just what was being made canon in the Star Wars universe to begin with and what was just fan-fiction.
Some of the fan written stories have been regarded as perhaps some of the best Star Wars content out there that was available to the general public. Unfortunately, it would be awhile before any official word was released which gave people an idea as to what was going to be considered official Star Wars canon. When Disney bought out Lucasfilm, they made it official as to what would be considered canon in the Star Wars universe, and to no one’s surprise, pretty much all of the fan-fiction was considered non-canon. Luckily, most new Star Wars content these days is considered to be a part of the Star Wars canon because the people working on that content need permission from Disney before they can make it. This is how we ended up with all of the new content being put out becoming important to the universe that people know and love.
There was debate as to what would end up becoming canon to the Star Wars universe after Disney made their announcement, but to make things easier to follow, they released the Star Wars books, shows, and games which would be considered canon in their new continuity. This would easily allow long time fans to follow along with what is now happening in the Star Wars universe while also making it possible for people to be on the lookout for new canon-approved content. Even the stories that were not really considered canon have been recognized as being very good stories to be told in the universe. No matter how we look at how some content is handled canon-wise, the fact remains that it is still a universe that a lot of people are in love with. This has allowed the franchise to continue, and even expand, at this point because they continue to draw in new crowds to see and experience the new stuff they put out there.
After Disney took over the rights for the Star Wars franchise, they immediately announced their plans to begin work on new movies and other content. They would then allow the shows that were already out to continue and made them a part of the canon which is how the cartoons tie into the whole franchise. Often times, the side stories and other content available for the wider story in the universe show what happens between or before the mainline movies with ties to various other forms of media. Making new mainline movies was not the only original goal in the minds of people working at Disney because they would eventually announce that they would be making side story films. The idea behind those films was to release a side story about characters in the universe that happened before or between timelines from the movies.
Unfortunately, that plan ended up going out the window after the release of the second side story film and thus the plans for future films was scrapped in the end. On the brighter side of things, they would still come up with plans to make shows that are based the same way that the movies were supposed to be. The most profound instance of this just so happens to be one of their most popular IP’s right now which is ‘The Mandalorian.’ The show focuses on a bounty hunter in the Star Wars universe who takes on a variety of jobs to continue living as he wants. Of course, he is the titular Mandalorian and people in the show recognize him as such which is something that many hardcore fans have been looking forward to. The show turned out to be far different from what people were originally thinking though, so people were obviously surprised by the outcome.
Many people were hoping that the planned film would be a story which focused on the story of the bounty hunter Boba Fett who had become iconic to many people over the years. Yet again, this is another situation that no one expected to see because he had such a small role in the original movies and a mention in the prequel trilogy. Regardless, people began considering him to be one of the greatest bounty hunters in the Star Wars universe and they wanted to see a story which centers on him at some point. There was content which released over the years which explained what happened to him after his fall into the Sarlacc Pit in ‘Return of the Jedi.’ Everyone had assumed him to be dead after that, but the truth, as it turns out, was that he did not die after falling in and he instead managed to survive in the beast’s stomach before eventually escaping.
With that backstory available to Disney, people were hoping that this would be the direction they would take things when they announced their plans for a ‘Mandalorian’ movie a while back. Unfortunately, there was not enough buzz going around with the Han Solo story that they released and therefore they considered the side story stuff to be a failure. Next, they would announce that it would instead be a new show that would premiere on their Disney+ streaming service with the focus being on a new character. The show is meant to be a canon story which is actually set between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy timelines as a means of setting up various storylines that could happen between the many years seen between movies. It is because of the vast possibilities that we can now see various characters from earlier in the series’ timeline returning despite everything we thought may have happened to them.
Most recently, we have seen this in action with the return of one Ahsoka Tano to the series for the first time since her role in the Clone Wars story arc. Star Wars ‘The Clone Wars’ was easily one of the most popular Star Wars shows out there and it set a pretty high standard for Star Wars shows moving forward. While it may have been a cartoon, it has been regarded as one of the best cartoons that has ever been made because of both the animation and the story told throughout the show. The setting of the show actually takes place between the second and third prequel film and shows exactly what happened during the titular Clone Wars which saw its conclusion in the third Prequel film. There was a lot of time in-between those two movies that had to be accounted for and they did just that when they released the show.
The ‘Clone Wars’ show was played out until they reached the point where the two timelines ended up matching up with one another and then we knew the result with the ‘Revenge of the Sith’ movie. That would not be the only well-regarded movie though, because as it would turn out, they would also go on to make a Star Wars ‘Rebels’ show which shows what happened five years before the start of the original ‘Star Wars’ film. It followed the Galactic Empire who were hunting down the last of the Jedi while also showing how the rebellion first started taking form. This was the last time in Star Wars canon that people were able to see Ahsoka Tano as a part of the overall Star Wars universe, until now that is. She made her return in ‘The Mandalorian’s’ “Chapter 13: The Jedi” which finally gave the character her first live-action appearance. Before then, she had only really been seen in the aforementioned cartoons, hiding away from the Empire while assisting where she could.
In the cartoons, she began as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice who eventually had to hide from her former friends and allies after they started eliminating Jedi. By the time of ‘Rebels,’ it was shown that she had aged a lot due to the passing of time and this became most apparent with her head tails. As many fans have made note of, Ahsoka’s race have the tails on their heads get longer as they get older and they are a sign of a mature member of her race. This means that by the time of the ‘Mandalorian’ show, they should have been even longer, but they ended up being almost as short as they were in the original ‘Clone Wars’ cartoon. Fans, being Star Wars fans, immediately started questioning the reason for why the character, played by Rosario Dawson, was portrayed this way on screen. In response to the questions being asked, character designer Brian Matyas immediately responded to the question on his Twitter page.
The simple answer that pretty much answers everyone’s questions is that it was easier for the actor if the tails were shorter because movement had to be factored in. Matyas said that he played around with many different kinds of designs which could possibly translate from the animations to live-action, but this was the best option. Sometimes, there needs to be a compromise so that characters and objects that people loved could be introduced back into the story in some way. In this case, the compromise was a slightly different design for the character for the sake of range of movement so that the acting can be much more natural. Being able to move and do stunts properly is much better in the end than a bad performance because of a slight appearance difference. Hopefully fans will be able to understand this and they will accept this explanation without dragging this issue out.