The first season of the American television series Ahsoka is part of the Star Wars franchise, taking place in the same timeframe as the series The Mandalorian (2019–2023) after the events of the film Return of the Jedi (1983). It follows former Jedi apprentice Ahsoka Tano and her allies as they attempt to prevent Grand Admiral Thrawn from returning and uniting the remnants of the Galactic Empire against the fledgling New Republic. The season was produced by Lucasfilm and Golem Creations, with Dave Filoni serving as showrunner.

Rosario Dawson stars as the title character, reprising her role from The Mandalorian. Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ray Stevenson, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O'Reilly, Hayden Christensen, Ariana Greenblatt, Lars Mikkelsen (Thrawn), and Anthony Daniels also star. A spin-off from The Mandalorian focused on Ahsoka was announced in December 2020. The series allowed Filoni to continue a story he had been planning since the animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018) ended, further exploring Ahsoka following that series and Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020), and bringing key characters from Rebels into live-action such as Bordizzo as Sabine Wren. Filming took place in Los Angeles from May to October 2022, using the same StageCraft virtual production technology as The Mandalorian.

The season premiered on the streaming service Disney+ on August 22, 2023, with its first two episodes. The other six episodes were released through October 3. Viewership was estimated to be high, and similar to other Star Wars series on Disney+. Reviews were generally positive, with critics commonly feeling that the season was a good franchise entry for existing Star Wars fans and praising the performances of Dawson and Stevenson, but criticizing the slow pacing and some other "stiff" performances. The season received various accolades, including a posthumous Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Award for costume designer Shawna Trpcic. A second season was confirmed in January 2024.

Ahsoka Tano was created for the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008–2020) by Star Wars creator George Lucas and The Clone Wars supervising director Dave Filoni. Voiced by Ashley Eckstein, the character is the Jedi apprentice of Anakin Skywalker, the main character of the Star Wars prequel films (1999–2005). Ahsoka became a fan favorite character and Eckstein reprised her role for the follow-up animated series Star Wars Rebels (2014–2018). Rebels was co-created by Filoni and focuses on a group of heroes who resist the Galactic Empire: the Jedi Kanan Jarrus, his apprentice Ezra Bridger, pilot Hera Syndulla, Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren, Zeb Orrelios, and Hera's droid Chopper. During Rebels, Ahsoka learns that Anakin has fallen to the dark side of the Force and become the Sith lord Darth Vader. In the final season, Kanan sacrifices his life and Ezra is taken to an unknown location with antagonist Grand Admiral Thrawn. The series ends with an epilogue in which Ahsoka joins Sabine to search for Ezra, leading to speculation about a new series focusing on them. Filoni said he had ideas for that story but nothing was in development. He described bringing the two characters together as "a unification of Clone Wars and Rebels", and said he would not want someone else to tell their story.

The franchise expanded to live-action television with the Disney+ series The Mandalorian (2019–2023). Creator Jon Favreau worked with Filoni to develop the series, which is set after the fall of the Empire. When thinking of a way to reveal details about the Jedi to the series' characters, Filoni realized that Ahsoka would be able to provide this information. After writing and directing episodes of the first season, he felt confident enough in his filmmaking abilities to be able to introduce her to live-action in the second season without "mess[ing] it up"; it was important to Filoni that fans who grew up watching the animated Ahsoka feel that a live-action version was the same character. Disney CEO Bob Iger said in February 2020 that spin-offs of The Mandalorian were being considered, and there was potential to add characters to the series to then give them their own series. Rosario Dawson was reported to be cast as Ahsoka for the second season a month later, but this was not officially confirmed until the episode she appears in, "Chapter 13: The Jedi", was released in November. Dawson studied acting with Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin in the prequel films, and first expressed interest in playing Ahsoka in live-action after her casting was suggested by a fan in February 2017. Filoni wrote and directed the episode, which depicts Ahsoka searching for Thrawn; Filoni suggested that this is before Ahsoka joins Sabine in the epilogue of Rebels. The episode introduces Diana Lee Inosanto as Morgan Elsbeth, a servant of Thrawn.

Lucasfilm announced several spin-off series from The Mandalorian in December 2020, including Ahsoka and The Book of Boba Fett (2021). The new series were set in the same trimeframe as The Mandalorian—during the 30 years between the films Return of the Jedi (1983) and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015)—and were planned to culminate in a "climactic story event"; Filoni indicated that this would involve a conflict with the remnants of the Empire which Ahsoka helps build towards. The series were being concurrently developed by Favreau and Filoni, with Filoni creating, writing, and serving as lead producer and showrunner on Ahsoka. Lucasfilm's Kathleen Kennedy, Carrie Beck, and Colin Wilson were also executive producers. Peter Ramsey was hired to direct at least one episode by April 2022, and Filoni was confirmed to be directing multiple episodes the next month. In April 2023, the season was revealed to have eight episodes, and the other directors were announced: Jennifer Getzinger, Geeta Patel, The Book of Boba Fett's Steph Green, and The Mandalorian's Rick Famuyiwa. Filoni said each episode would be similar in length to The Mandalorian's episodes, though he tended to prefer longer episodes than Favreau which sometimes needed to be edited down to improve pacing.

Following speculation and reports about the series, Filoni confirmed that Ahsoka would continue the story he established in the epilogue of Rebels. He never expected to tell this story as a spin-off from a series like The Mandalorian, and found it intimidating to actually write after thinking about it for so many years. When asked if Ahsoka was effectively a fifth season of Rebels, Filoni said that was "one way of looking at it" but he also saw all of his Star Wars projects as one larger story. He said viewers did not need to watch The Clone Wars and Rebels to understand Ahsoka but he felt it would help, and he hoped Ahsoka would lead to new audiences discovering the animated series on Disney+. The first person Filoni sent each script to was Beck, who he had been working with since the start of Rebels, and he also appreciated getting Favreau's advice from a perspective outside of Filoni's understanding of the characters and animated history.

The season is set after Ahsoka's appearances in the second season of The Mandalorian and in The Book of Boba Fett, and takes place concurrently with the third season of The Mandalorian. It begins with Ahsoka as a wandering rōnin who Filoni compared to the main character of Akira Kurosawa's film Yojimbo (1961), noting that Lucas was inspired by the works of Kurosawa when originally creating Star Wars. This depiction of the character comes after Ahsoka's decision to leave the Jedi and the subsequent destruction of the Order in The Clone Wars, as well as the revelation that Anakin is Darth Vader in Rebels. This season was Filoni's first opportunity to explore these issues with the character, and he wanted to show what she feels this all means about her own potential for darkness. He also wanted to explore Ahsoka's feelings about continuing this legacy with an apprentice of her own, and the relationships between masters and apprentices became a key theme throughout the season. Ahsoka is revealed to have taken Sabine on as her Padawan learner after the main events of Rebels, but they parted ways soon after when Sabine's family were killed during the purge of Mandalore and her subsequent internal struggle reminded Ahsoka too much of Anakin. Filoni was planning this storyline by the end of Rebels, having come to feel that Sabine was more than just a Mandalorian warrior. He saw similarities between the character and Anakin, and chose to pair Sabine with Ahsoka in the epilogue of Rebels because of the complicated relationship that could potentially be developed between Ahsoka and an apprentice who reminds her of her own master. He was also interested by the idea of someone training to be a Jedi who does not have a strong connection to the Force, feeling that differentiated the story from most Star Wars projects which are often about very talented Jedi who he felt were not always relatable to the audience. Filoni disagreed with some fans who felt this was going against the franchise's established rules for the Force, noting that the Force has always been described as connecting to all living beings and adding his view that anyone can become a Jedi with the right training.