Star Wars Has A Massive Hole In The Original Trilogy Era That Needs To Be Filled

You'd think that by now, every hour, minute, and second of the Star Wars timeline between "Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope" and the start of "The Mandalorian" would be accounted for. We've got the movies, the comics, novels upon novels about the Galactic Civil War, the birth of the New Republic, and the end of the Empire. We've even got "Book of Boba Fett" flashbacks and video games like "Star Wars Outlaws" covering the underworld. And yet, there are still some massive holes in the canon timeline of the Original Trilogy era, and they mostly revolve around one specific event.

The Great Purge of Mandalore is, in many ways, the central moment around which the entire "Mandalorian" era of Star Wars stories turns. It's the reason Din Djarin's Mandalorian clan, the Children of the Watch, live in hiding according to their strict creed. It's the reason Bo-Katan no longer holds the Darksaber at the start of the show, and why Moff Gideon has a hidden base on Mandalore. It's even, ostensibly, a big part of why Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren had such a schism in their original master/apprentice relationship — a relationship that, like the Purge, is alluded to often, but never actually depicted on screen. At this point, we still don't even know where Ahsoka is during the Original Trilogy.

In a vacuum, these questions might not be too important. But in the absence of new Star Wars films, the "Mandalorian" era has become the primary narrative space for Star Wars. These shows, however, rely again and again on events from the Original Trilogy that we have never seen. With this part of the timeline continuing forward with "The Mandalorian and Grogu," it's time Disney finally filled the hole.

The Great Purge of Mandalore, referred to by the Children of the Watch as the Night of a Thousand Tears, was first referenced in "The Mandalorian" Season 1. At the time, it was unclear exactly when the event took place, or what it entailed. Now, it has become one of the most important dates in Star Wars history. "Star Wars Rebels" shows how, in the years leading up to the Battle of Yavin, Mandalore began a more organized resistance against the Empire, led by Bo-Katan, so many assumed that the Purge must have taken place some time during the Original Trilogy as an act of punishment.

The true answer came near the end of "Ahsoka" Season 1, where the ancient Jedi droid Huyang tells Ezra Bridger that the Purge occurred shortly after the Battle of Endor in "Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi." This, Huyang says, is why Ahsoka stopped training Sabine, as the younger woman was so filled with rage at the genocide of her people that Ahsoka feared she would take her teachings down a dark path.

It all sounds like pretty compelling stuff, right? Since Sabine and Ahsoka's relationship is positioned as the central storyline of that show, the Purge is basically the initiating event for the two biggest shows of the "Mandalorian" era. And still, nearly seven years after "The Mandalorian" first premiered, all we've gotten on screen is a brief flashback shot of TIE bombers glassing the surface of Mandalore.

The Purge of Mandalore isn't the only big hole around that point in the timeline. As of now, Ahsoka Tano herself is unaccounted for during the entirety of the Original Trilogy, as well as the time between "Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi" and her appearance in "The Mandalorian" Season 2. That's about a decade of completely unexplored story, and all we know about it is that at some point, Ahsoka trained Sabine, then stopped.

Stray sourcebook references claim that Ahsoka went on some sport of spirit quest following her final appearance in "Star Wars Rebels," which saw her and Ezra Bridger discovering the World Between Worlds — a realm outside of time and space. She isn't with the Rebellion during the Galactic Civil War, as far as we know, but if the Purge of Mandalore occurred soon after "Return of the Jedi," and if Ahsoka stopped training Sabine around that time, then she may have started working with the young mandalorian before the end of the Original Trilogy.

Ahsoka's emotionally detached characterization in the live-action shows has been one of the big sticking points for fans since Rosario Dawson's debut in the role. Her version of the character feels very different from the one seen in animation, and presumably, that change is connected to whatever happened to Ahsoka during those 10 years of unexplored story. Like the Purge, though, we still haven't seen any of the actual events therein. Fans have once again been left to fill in the gaps of a story that's heavily reliant on things we've never been shown.

The problem is clear: Lucasfilm has left a handful of major story events unseen, only vaguely alluded to, while building a whole new era of the Star Wars timeline directly off of those events. Fans who are less enthusiastic about Dave Filoni's distinct brand of Star Wars often complain that shows like "Ahsoka" and the later episodes of "The Mandalorian" feel untethered in a way, detached from a real sense of narrative self-detection, and these huge gaps are a big reason why. But fixing the issue might not be so simple — at least, not at this point.

As previously mentioned, the Original Trilogy is heavily traveled territory at this point. Lucasfilm is likely better served by continuing to expand outward from the so-called "Skywalker Saga," yet by making the "Mandalorian" era the primary method of doing so, Filoni and co. have created a sort of paradox. It doesn't make much sense, for instance, that Ahsoka would be around during the Galactic Civil War and not help in some way, yet going back to that era to retcon her absence would require animation, recastings, or more comics or novels that most Disney+ viewers still won't read.

Right now, with the current Star Wars projects currently on the roster, there are a couple of primary ways Disney could start to mend the big gap it's left in the timeline. The most obvious would be flashbacks in "Ahsoka" Season 2, which is on the way sooner rather than later, explaining parts of the 10-year gap between "Star Wars Rebels" and "The Mandalorian."

Seeing her relationship with Sabine before and after the Purge would give some actual dramatic weight to the event, and it would help explain what Ahsoka has been up to, so her own story doesn't feel like such a massive hole. "Ahsoka" Season 1 already has a heavy amount of dramatized flashbacks, and with the World Between Worlds likely being a returning plot device, there's a built-in mechanism for showing these pieces of the past.

Back in 2023, Lucasfilm announced that Dave Filoni would be directing a movie designed to wrap up the "Mandalorian" era in a grand finale. While very little has been revealed in the time since, and Disney has canceled plenty of Star Wars movies before, the popular theory is that it will be a "Thrawn vs. Everyone" story, set up by "The Mandalorian and Grogu" and "Ahsoka" Season 2. If that actually comes to pass, these holes need to be fixed first. There is too much still left to the imagination for these characters' stories, and for a big finale to actually hit, they need to plug the leaks.

The current "Mandalorian" timeline dilemma was the result of poor planning — an issue that's common to the most damaging decisions of the Disney Star Wars era. When the show was first conceived, it was meant as a side story of sorts, evoking the franchise's space Western origins. But then it took on more and more importance over time, bringing in characters from "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," setting up big arcs in spin-off shows, and generally becoming too big for its initially intended britches.

In Season 1, not seeing something like the Purge of Mandalore was fine, and Ahsoka being introduced without any recent context worked okay in theory because Din Djarin was also meeting her for the first time. But now that all of these things have been spun out into a whole new era of the Star Wars saga, the number of huge things we still don't know, or haven't seen, has become a big problem.

Hopefully, whatever the next big Star Wars project is after this era wraps up can avoid these issues. With better forethought, more confidence in the creative direction, and less reliance on stories of the past, Lucasfilm could craft something far more cohesive and get some real momentum building in the fandom again.