Ahsoka Suggests Time Travel Is Coming To Star Wars – But This Isn't New

This article contains spoilers for "Ahsoka."

Sooner or later, every franchise tackles time travel. "SpongeBob SquarePants," "Game of Thrones," the Marvel Cinematic Universe, "Family Guy," the Arrowverse, and even "Riverdale" have all sent characters spiraling through history at some point over the duration of their runs. On "Star Trek," of course, a journey to the past is just another day ending in "y" for the various members of Starfleet.

It begs the question: why hasn't that other long-running property with "Star" in the title taken a stab at time travel yet? Well, dear reader, I'm here to tell you that it has ... except, like so many of the most interesting elements of "Star Wars" these days, it's been limited to animation so far. In an intriguing development, however, it seems that may be changing as Lucasfilm Animation boss and "The Mandalorian" executive producer Dave Filoni continues his mission to bring the live-action and animated sides of a galaxy far, far away together.

The latest "Mandalorian" spinoff, "Ahsoka," sees Filoni acting as head writer, and he's already spent the first two episodes bringing some of the best characters and story threads from his "Star Wars" animated shows into the realm of live-action. Episode 2, "Toil and Trouble," even teases the prospect of time travel in the scene where Morgan Elsbeth (Diana Lee Inosanto) — the former Magistrate of Calodan whom we previously encountered on "The Mandalorian" — uses a star map to pinpoint the location of her absentee boss, the Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen). "Thrawn calls to me across time and space," she states at one point.

Sure, that sounds like the sort of vaguely mystical claptrap that "Star Wars" villains love to proclaim, but it could also be referencing something more concrete: The World Between Worlds.

Among the many fascinating ideas Filoni introduced to the mythology of the Force on the animated series "Star Wars Rebels" is The World Between Worlds. Also known as the Vergence Scatter, this mysterious realm exists outside of time and space and manifests itself as a series of pathways leading to infinite doorways, each of which will take you to a specific place and moment in time. Think of the fifth-dimensional tesseract from "Interstellar" (or, to use the, ahem, scientific terminology, the space library) and you'll have a rough idea of how The World Between Worlds functions.

Discovered by the Jedi in ancient times, The World Between Worlds is incredibly difficult to reach. There are mystical creatures that can venture there thanks to their intrinsic connection to the Force, but beyond that, there are very few ways for the mere mortals of the "Star Wars" universe to access it. That's undoubtedly for the best, though, given its potential to wreak havoc on history. Case in point: When "Rebels" hero Ezra Bridger accessed the realm through a long-lost Jedi Temple on Lothal, he was able to rescue Ahsoka Tano from her nearly-fatal showdown with Darth Vader on Malachor ... only for Emperor Palpatine to detect their presence via the dark side and nearly enter the realm himself before Ezra and Ahsoka stopped him.

Will "Ahsoka" feature a live-action version of The World Between Worlds? Morgan's dark side-wielding crony Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) claims Thrawn holds the key to "Power, such as you've never dreamed," which, coupled with Morgan's comment, could mean that Thrawn has somehow tapped into The World Between Worlds. Is that a stretch? Absolutely, but even the mere possibility of Thrawn being able to time travel is too darn exciting to dismiss out of hand.

New episodes of "Ahsoka" premiere Tuesdays at 6 pm PST/9 pm EST on Disney+.