Lucasfilm Unveils Ahsoka Season 2 Teaser and Starfighter Film at D23 2026
Lucasfilm released the first teaser trailer for Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 at D23 2026 in Anaheim on Friday, confirming a January 20, 2027 premiere on Disney+ (Deadline, StarWars.com). The trailer debuted during a panel called "The Ultimate Disney Fan Event," with Hayden Christensen and Rosario Dawson presenting the footage on stage (Screen Rant).
The teaser points toward a darker storyline for the series. Grand Admiral Thrawn, a strategic military commander from the original Star Wars Expanded Universe novels by Timothy Zahn, threatens to drag the galaxy back into large-scale war in the power vacuum left after the Empire's fall. The trailer also leans heavily into witchcraft imagery tied to Star Wars lore (The Verge). Anakin Skywalker, again played by Christensen, challenges his former apprentice Ahsoka with the line that anchors the trailer: "Are you a Jedi… or not?" (IGN on Facebook). The cast includes Rosario Dawson in the title role and Eman Esfandi (StarWars.com). The official Star Wars YouTube channel published the teaser, titled "Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2 | Teaser Trailer | Streaming January 20 on Disney+" (YouTube).
Alongside the Ahsoka footage, Lucasfilm used the D23 stage to tease the upcoming theatrical film Star Wars: Starfighter. Ryan Gosling appeared in person to introduce the project (The Verge). The film's cast includes Gosling, Matt Smith, Aaron Pierre, and Mia Goth, with a theatrical release scheduled for May 28, 2027. Footage from Starfighter was shown only to attendees in the room and has not been officially released online (The Verge).
StarWars.com is running dedicated coverage for both projects, listing articles titled "D23 2026: Star Wars: Ahsoka Season 2" and "D23 2026: Star Wars: Starfighter" among its latest features (StarWars.com). The broader Lucasfilm release calendar is filling out: The Mandalorian and Grogu arrives on Disney+ streaming September 2nd, and the animated anthology Star Wars: Visions Volume 3, along with a spin-off series titled Star Wars: Visions Presents - The Ninth Jedi, were previously announced at Star Wars Celebration Japan 2025 (StarWars.com).
The scheduling is worth noting. Ahsoka Season 2 lands on Disney+ in January 2027, Starfighter reaches theaters in May 2027, and the gap between them is roughly four months. That cadence gives Lucasfilm a window where streaming and theatrical releases are close enough to reinforce each other without directly competing for the same audience. For Disney+, which has relied heavily on Marvel and Star Wars as recurring engagement drivers, a January Ahsoka premiere arrives in a quarter where subscriber retention typically softens after the holiday period.
The Thrawn-centered narrative is worth flagging. Introduced in the original Expanded Universe novels by Timothy Zahn and carried into the current canon via the Ahsoka series and the Rebels animated show, Thrawn functions as a strategic, non-Sith antagonist whose threat is systemic rather than mystical. The trailer's witchcraft imagery aligns with elements Lucasfilm has been developing around the Nightsisters, a group of Force users who practice a form of sorcery distinct from the Jedi-Sith divide. How far the series pushes that direction, and whether it reshapes audience expectations of what a Star Wars story can center on, will be a question for January.
The Starfighter teaser, by contrast, remains behind closed doors. Keeping exclusive footage for in-room attendees at fan events is a long-standing practice, but it also means the broader public has no visual reference point for the film beyond cast announcements and a release date. With Gosling as the anchor and a cast that mixes genre veterans and newcomers, the film is positioned as a theatrical Star Wars entry distinct from the Mandalorian-era streaming output.
D23 2026 has given Lucasfilm a single stage to advance both pillars of its near-term Star Wars roadmap. The Ahsoka trailer is public, dated, and available for dissection. Starfighter exists, for now, as a promise and a cast list.
