‘Ahsoka’s Dark Jedi Villain Is More Than Meets the Eye
Ahsoka premieres on August 23, bringing the highly anticipated return of Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano and Lars Mikkelsen’s live-action take on Grand Admiral Thrawn. But there’s one actor who is especially dear to some viewers’ hearts: Ray Stevenson. The late actor was cast in Ahsoka after making an impression in the Star Wars universe as the voice of Gar Saxon in both Star Wars Rebels and Star Wars: The Clone Wars. What’s especially exciting, though, is that Stevenson is playing a new role in the Disney+ series.
Sadly, Stevenson passed away on May 21, 2023, meaning Ahsoka will be a posthumous release, marking his final performance in a TV series. Considering the excitement he expressed for the project, it will be bittersweet to watch his performance and celebrate his legacy when the series premieres. Initially, not much was known about his role in Ahsoka as Baylan Skoll. While it seemed he would be an antagonist, there was little else to go on since this is the first appearance of Skoll in the Star Wars universe. Considering Star Wars has such an expansive history, it’s always very exciting and intriguing when an original character arrives on the scene.
Fortunately, ahead of Ahsoka‘s August 23 premiere, the trailers have revealed some details on Skoll’s background.
Who is Baylan Skoll?
Empire Magazine confirmed that Stevenson’s Skoll is a former Jedi who survived Order 66 before turning to the Dark Side. This is an origin story we have sadly seen before in the Star Wars universe. During Order 66, Chancellor Palpatine (Ian McDiarmid) branded all Jedi as traitors and had most of them killed by the Republic’s clone army, which had been programmed to slaughter every Jedi upon Palpatine’s order. The remaining Jedi who weren’t fighting in the Clone Wars were killed by Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) at the Jedi Temple. While the goal was to eradicate the Jedi entirely, a handful of Jedi managed to survive the massacre. However, several of these survivors were corrupted, with some even joining the Inquisitors to hunt down and kill any remaining Jedi.
After surviving the trauma of Order 66, Skoll set out on his own as a mercenary. Somewhere along the way, though, he got wind of Thrawn and believed him to be the key to “power, such as you’ve never dreamed.” As a result, he sets out with his apprentice, Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno), to help Thrawn complete his mission of restoring the empire.
They are willing to go to great measures to get what they want, even carrying out a massacre on a New Republic ship in the Ahsoka trailer. Skoll proves he has entirely left his Jedi identity behind, telling one victim, “We are no Jedi.” He views Tano as an obstacle to their mission, but he also seems intrigued by her, as he knew Anakin during his time in the Jedi Order and recalls how impressed Anakin was with Tano, his Padawan.
There are hints that Skoll isn’t purely evil and is a more complex character. Viewers were quick to notice that his lightsaber in the trailer isn’t pure red, the color typically used by Sith and Dark Jedi. Instead, his lightsaber appears a bit orangey in color, perhaps signifying that he’s not as devoted to the Dark Side as the Sith. Ahsoka executive producer Dave Filoni confirmed that fans’ eyes weren’t playing tricks on them and that Skoll and Hati’s lightsabers were intentionally made with an orange tint. He also teased that it might mean something, noting that “Nothing is accidental.” Before his passing, Stevenson seemed to confirm Skoll’s complicated nature, too, saying of his character, “He is not genocidal or malicious or overly aggressive. He will request that you get out of his way. But if you don’t, he will take you out of his way.”
While Skoll is a major antagonist in Ahsoka, his background makes him unique and demonstrates that not every Jedi who survived Order 66 went down the same path in the aftermath of such trauma.
(featured image: Disney+)
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