Henry Gilroy, a senior writer and executive producer on Star Wars: Rebels, says that turning Sabine Wren into a Jedi in Ahsoka was never part of the character’s original path and argues it undercuts the work done in the animated series.
What did Henry Gilroy say about Sabine?
Speaking in a recent interview, Gilroy said the idea of Sabine discovering Force sensitivity came up during Rebels, but the team dismissed it because it clashed with Ezra Bridger’s story and repeated themes they already explored.
“It was absolutely not the plan… we really felt that not only did it step on Ezra’s story… it was a weak retread, we already did this,” Gilroy said on the Pod of Rebellion podcast.
Gilroy explained that Sabine was designed to stand on her own as a skilled Mandalorian fighter, not a late-stage Jedi trainee. He said the writers felt giving her Jedi training would be “overkill” and would dilute the arc they built around her connection to the Darksaber and the trauma tied to the Empire’s oppression of Mandalore.
“The idea of Sabine training as a Jedi when she is already this fantastic warrior of her own type, we felt like, ‘This is overkill,’” said Gilroy.
Shock Over Sabine’s New Jedi Path
Gilroy said he had “nothing to do” with the live-action Ahsoka series and was surprised to see Sabine suddenly wielding a lightsaber again.
“I had nothing to do with the Ahsoka series, so I was shocked,” Gilroy continued.
He pointed to her Darksaber storyline in Rebels—where she trains with the weapon but ultimately passes it on—as an example of how a character can embody Jedi ideals without being part of the Order or its traditions. Gilroy argued that was more compelling than suddenly giving her Force abilities she never showed before. He highlighted the moment in Ahsoka where Sabine Force-pushes Ezra as an example of how the series pushed her past what was established in animation, saying it felt disconnected from the intent of her original arc.
“What I love about the story with the Darksaber is that you don’t have to be a Jedi to have Jedi ideals… I think that’s what’s really the more important thing, rather than Force pushing Ezra a hundred feet when she’s never used the Force before,” he said.
Why Disney Likely Pushed Sabine Into a Jedi Role
The decision to turn Sabine into a Jedi in Ahsoka looks less like a natural evolution of her character and more like another move from Kathleen Kennedy’s long-running “The Force is Female” era, where legacy canon took a backseat to branding.
Under Kennedy, Disney repeatedly ignored established lore to elevate new female Jedi figures, often at the expense of consistency and story logic (The Last Jedi, and The Acolyte come to mind).
It’s the same approach that helped fracture the sequel trilogy and push longtime fans away from the franchise.
Sabine’s sudden promotion into a Force-user fits that pattern perfectly, a corporate mandate dressed up as character growth, and another example of how Disney’s version of Star Wars keeps rewriting canon while wondering why the brand collapsed under their watch.
