Stars Wars fans unite: Ahsoka has arrived on Disney+

Ahsoka, the latest offering in the Star Wars saga, is here. But is the spin-off from The Mandalorian one for true believers only?

Rosario Dawson in a scene from Ahoska on Disney +

Ahsoka

Disney+

The latest offering in the Star Wars saga is a spin-off from The Mandalorian, taking place in the same time frame as that series and after the events of the 1983 film Return of the Jedi. (For true-blue geeks, it is a continuation of the animated series Star Wars Rebels.) For those not au fait with the ever-expanding Star Wars universe, Rosario Dawson plays Ahsoka Tano, a Jedi knight and member of the Rebel Alliance, a former apprentice (padawan) of Anakin Skywalker, who would go on to become the Dark Lord himself, Darth Vader. The Empire has fallen, but Ahsoka gets wind of an emerging threat to the galaxy and that forms the main plot to the series. Fans of The Mandalorian will recall that at the end of the episode featuring Ahsoka she vowed to track down Grand Admiral Thrawn, a high-ranking senior officer of the Galactic Empire, who was last seen disappearing into the vastness of space with Ezra Bridger, a Jedi who sacrificed himself to take down Thrawn. But Ahsoka (correctly) believes that Thrawn is still alive and poses a considerable threat to peace and stability. Lars Mikkelsen plays Thrawn, whom he had voiced in the aforementioned Rebels; Hayden Christensen reprises his role as Anakin, presumably seen in flashbacks (as Vader is dead in this timeline); and David Tennant voices a droid who makes lightsabers. For anyone tempted into the franchise by the grown-up noir thriller Andor, this might not be for you as we seem to be back in the realm of dark v light, epic lightsaber fights, furry aliens, wisecracking robots and Jediism as a quasi religion. In other words, heaven for Star Wars nuts.

Invasion

AppleTV+

A second series for the brooding sci-fi thriller with a War of the Worlds-ish premise. Earth is visited by an alien species that threatens our existence. Events unfold in real time through the eyes of ordinary people across the world, including Sam Neill’s small-town police chief. However (spoiler alert), they killed off Neill’s character at the end of the first episode — a bold move, and one of many inscrutable elements of the slow-burning series. The second run begins 121 days after the invasion, and we are thrown straight into an enormous battle as the aliens escalate their attacks. Can the humans fight back?

Never Mind the Buzzcocks

ABC iView

A third series for the rebooted irreverent pop panel show, with British comedian Greg Davies returning as host alongside the team captains Daisy May-Cooper and Noel Fielding and the regular panellist Jamali Maddox. There are a couple of new rounds this time, including one where contestants have to guess the pop video that is being described to them. “Really does make you realise how insane some of the starting points for pop videos have been over the years,” Davies says. Of all the guests to feature in the new run, Davies has a special mention for Gregory Porter. “That silky voiced crooner is a lot of fun,” he says.

Gulliver’s Travels (PG, 2010)

Disney Plus

In this update of Jonathan Swift’s story, Jack Black stars as Lemuel Gulliver, a mailroom clerk for a New York newspaper who shares his sorry apartment with a collection of Star Wars action figures and nurses a covert crush on the paper’s travel editor (Amanda Peet). Gulliver lies his way into a gig as a travel writer for the paper and, for his first assignment, lands the plum job of investigating the truth behind the Bermuda Triangle. But it turns out that the story involves more than sitting on a boat, supping cans of a prominently product-placed soft drink. Gulliver navigates his way into a CGI whirlpool and finds himself beached, like a gigantic, sweating whale, on the shores of Lilliput. The Lilliputians are almost exclusively played by British actors, including Billy Connolly, Emily Blunt and James Corden.

Untold: Swamp Kings

Netflix

Everyone’s heard of urban myths, but here’s a rare example of urban facts; Urban Meyer, the coach of the Florida Gators, transformed the University of Florida’s gridiron team into two-time winners of the college national championships. Under his leadership the Gators produced a number of future NFL stars, including Tim Tebow, Brandon Siler and Major Wright, all of whom appear in this mini-series to share how Meyer crafted a winning formula. Drama wasn’t confined to the pitch; during Meyer’s stint as coach between 2005 and 2010 at least 31 players were arrested for a range of alleged offences. Reports suggest that as long as the team was winning he wasn’t bothered, and there was a chance local police didn’t act appropriately because they didn’t want to disrupt the team.

Geordie Gray is on leave.