Order 66 is the moment everything changed in the Star Wars universe. This was the pinnacle of the Emperor’s devious plan: taking out the Jedi by activating secret programming in Clone Troopers causing them to execute any Jedi who were nearby. And once they’re gone, it’s Galactic Empire time, baby.
In a way, it’s genius. As the Clone Troopers were unaware of the Order in advance, the Jedi couldn’t sense what they’d do and after years fighting in the Clone Wars alongside them, they’d come to trust them implicitly. But as we saw in Revenge of the Sith, even if you’re really good at deflecting blaster bolts, you can’t deflect them all.
Palpatine’s plan killed off most of the Jedi seen in the Prequel Trilogy, with those that survived facing decades of being hunted down by the Empire. And now, it seems that the next episode of The Clone Wars will finally show us this happening.
The synopsis for the penultimate outing of the show, which airs on May 1st, reads as follows:
“After successfully capturing Maul on Mandalore, Ahsoka plans to deliver him to the Jedi Council on Coruscant. When Order 66 is declared in the midst of her journey, her world is turned upside down. Friends become foes, and enemies become allies in “Shattered” this Friday, May 1st.”
While The Clone Wars was always destined to have something of a downer ending, it’ll be pretty sad to see Ahsoka betrayed and survive an attempt on her life just as she thought things might be calming down for her a bit after defeating Darth Maul. The episode should also answer the question of how Ahsoka survived Order 66 and what she did in the immediate aftermath of it.
The Clone Wars will wrap up for good on Star Wars Day, May 4th, with the final episode rounding out the story and connecting the dots of Ahsoka’s tale. The next time we see her will likely be in the second season of The Mandalorian, where she’ll be played by Rosario Dawson. That’s set many decades on from the events of The Clone Wars, so it’ll be interesting to see how she’s changed over that time.