Credit: Lucasfilm
Published Aug 31, 2026, 11:44 PM EDT
Since 2019, Kevin Erdmann has been one of Screen Rant's Senior Staff Writers, covering all kinds of Superhero and Star Wars media with Easter egg breakdowns, theory pieces, breaking news, and more. A huge Star Wars & MCU fan, Kevin also loves Batman (because he's Batman), but could talk for hours about why Nightwing is DC's greatest hero.
With 8 years of total experience covering entertainment and pop culture, Kevin has gotten the chance to interview top creatives and talent, and has also attended major media events like Disney's D23 convention.
Majoring in Cinema Studies with a minor in Comics and Cartoon Studies from the UofO, Kevin lives in Oregon with his wonderful wife, adorable dog, and sinister cat who is no doubt currently plotting his demise.
Ahsoka season 2 may debut one of the most powerful Star Wars villains ever. As seen in the first season of the live-action Star Wars show, audiences were introduced to the extragalactic world of Peridea, the original homeworld of the Nightsisters and the planet where both Grand Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger were exiled for nearly a decade. However, Ahsoka season 1 ended with some major teases about Peridea's true power.
From the moment the fallen Jedi and dark-side mercenary Baylan Skoll set foot on Peridea, he claimed a mysterious power was calling out to him, offering the chance to break the cycles of conflict and light and dark that have plagued the galaxy for centuries. While we never learned what this power was, the first season's major cliffhanger gave some major teases. Now, Ahsoka season 2's first trailer continues to tease that this new power will indeed be revealed.
Seeing as how this power is heavily implied to be tied to the Mortis Gods, I have a pretty exciting idea as to what this power truly is, and the major galaxy-shaking Star Wars villain likely wielding it in Ahsoka season 2.
Ahsoka Season 2 Teases A New Power "To End All Wars"
The new Ahsoka season 2 trailer finally provides a little more information about Baylan's mysterious objective. Anakin tells Ahsoka that the power Baylan is searching for could "end all wars," immediately making it sound like something far beyond an ordinary weapon or Force ability.
That wording is particularly important because Baylan's motivations have never been as straightforward as those of a typical Sith. He became disillusioned with the endless conflict between the Jedi and Sith and apparently believes that the galaxy is trapped in an endless cycle that will never truly change.
A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”
🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians
⚡The SithRule of two
⚙️The RebellionA new hope
🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way
👑The EmpireOrder 66
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01
The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?
A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980
✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.
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02
A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.
ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner
✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.
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03
In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?
AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father
✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.
✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.
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04
Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.
AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson
✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.
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05
In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?
A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014
✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.
✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.
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06
The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?
ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze
✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.
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07
Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?
AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One
✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.
✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.
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08
Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.
ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni
✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).
✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.
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The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing
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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?
⤴ ANOTHER GO
Baylan therefore seems interested in finding something capable of breaking that cycle permanently. If the power can genuinely end all wars, it could theoretically accomplish exactly what he wants by fundamentally changing the relationship between the Force and the galaxy.
Of course, there is almost certainly a catch.
Star Wars has repeatedly established that attempts to achieve perfect balance or absolute control over the Force tend to have catastrophic consequences. A power capable of ending every war might also be capable of destroying the circumstances that allow life and civilization to exist in the first place.
That possibility becomes much more interesting when considering exactly where Baylan has been looking.
Peridea Is Connected To The Mortis Gods
The ending of Ahsoka season 1 strongly suggested that Baylan's destination is connected to the Mortis Gods. He was last seen standing on a massive statue of the Father, overlooking the strange landscape of Peridea while apparently sensing the power he had been seeking.
The Mortis Gods were introduced in The Clone Wars as incredibly powerful Force beings who existed outside the normal Jedi and Sith conflict. The Father represented balance, while his children, the Son and Daughter, represented the dark and light sides of the Force respectively.
The Father attempted to maintain balance between his children because their conflict threatened to consume Mortis itself. The Son eventually embraced the dark side, while the Daughter remained aligned with the light, creating a cosmic family conflict that went far beyond the typical Jedi-versus-Sith rivalry.
Peridea's Mortis God statues seemingly extend that mythology even further. If Baylan has discovered something connected to the Mortis Gods, then the power he is seeking may not simply be another ancient Force technique. It could be something capable of affecting the fundamental balance of the Force itself.
And that opens the door to an extremely dangerous (yet very exciting) possibility for Ahsoka season 2.
Star Wars Theory: Baylan Skoll May Be Trying To Release Abeloth
One of the biggest theories surrounding Baylan's storyline is that he could inadvertently release Abeloth, one of the most terrifying beings in the now non-canonical Legends continuity. Abeloth would be an especially fitting choice because her origins are directly connected to the Mortis Gods and the concept of cosmic balance.
In Legends, Abeloth was once a mortal woman who became the Mother of the Mortis family. Seeking immortality so she could remain with the beings she loved, she drank from the Font of Power and bathed in the Pool of Knowledge. Instead of achieving the peaceful immortality she wanted, Abeloth became corrupted into an immensely powerful Force entity associated with chaos and entropy. Her existence eventually became such a threat that the Son and Daughter had to work together to keep her imprisoned.
That is where Baylan's goal becomes potentially terrifying. If Abeloth is somehow connected to the power hidden on Peridea, Baylan could genuinely believe that releasing her would end the cycle of galactic warfare. He would not necessarily be wrong, either. A being of Abeloth's immense power could potentially make the Jedi-versus-Sith conflict irrelevant by introducing a threat so much larger than either side that everyone would be forced to unite.
But "ending all wars" and saving the galaxy are two very different things. Abeloth's return could instead mean the end of everything. If the Mortis Gods were once forced to work together simply to contain her, then Baylan releasing her would be less like discovering a weapon and more like opening a prison holding a cosmic apocalypse.
This would also make Baylan's storyline considerably more tragic. In attempting to create lasting peace and break the cycle, he could accidentally unleash something that threatens every living being in the galaxy. There is also enormous potential in bringing Abeloth into canon. Her mythology is unlike almost anything else in Star Wars, combining ancient Force mysticism, cosmic horror, and the Mortis Gods into a genuinely strange piece of the franchise's mythology.
If Ahsoka season 2 were to recanonize Abeloth, she could become one of the most powerful villains Star Wars has ever seen. Unlike another Sith Lord or Imperial warlord, Abeloth would represent an existential threat to the Force itself, both the light and the dark.
Whether Baylan actually intends to release Abeloth remains completely unconfirmed. The mysterious power on Peridea could ultimately be something entirely different. Still, the pieces are all there. An ancient power capable of ending all wars, massive statues of the Mortis Gods, and a character obsessed with breaking the cycle of light and dark all point toward a story far bigger than another Jedi-versus-Sith conflict.
Ahsoka season 2 premieres January 20th on Disney+ from Lucasfilm.
Release Date January 19, 2027
Network Disney+
Episodes 8
English (US) ·