Dave Filoni discusses the unexpected death of Ray Stevenson, Baylan Skoll in the Disney+ Ahsoka series, and confirms the character’s journey is not complete after we see him standing on the ruins of sculptures of the Mortis gods in the season one finale.
“You have to be careful with that,” says Filoni, the ultimate Star Wars geek who nonetheless knows the peril of getting too arcane for casual fans to follow. “I know it’s a very specific group of people that would even know what those statues are [as seen in The Clone Wars], but I thought it was an exciting image, and it does give you the shape of what Baylan is after,” Filoni says.
To Filoni, Baylan is a seeker just like Ahsoka, someone wrestling with the memory of what he was taught and the subsequent disillusion that has set in. “He’s a person that survived the Clone Wars, that was trained in the waxing-waning days of the Jedi Knights, just like Anakin,” Filoni says. “He saw his order, his way of life fall apart. And he’s basically deemed it a failure: That way did not work. That it’s not something worth resurrecting, which is why he tells [his apprentice] Shin [played by Ivanna Sakhno], ‘I didn’t teach you to be a Jedi. I taught you to be something more.’”
That “something more” would seem to be rooted in the Force version of deities.
“He’s tried to take these teachings that he learned as a young person and create his own way of being. And he’s looked at the cycle of things and said, ‘Enough with this. If I have this power, I should wield it. I should be the one making decisions,’ which a lot of people with power decide that’s the way to go,” Filoni says. “He’s also very certain that what he’s doing now is the right thing.”
While Filoni isn’t yet sure what will become of Baylan in Stevenson’s absence, he acknowledges that the character’s journey is not complete. “Obviously, there’s a story there,” he says. “We’re in a wait-and-see pattern at this point. But I’m glad the conversation is about Ray and how great he was…. I used to have mini debates with him and say, ‘Ray, you’re the villain here.’ And he’d be like, ‘I don’t think so.’ I was like, ‘I know you don’t think so, but you are. I love that you’re playing it like you’re not.’ Which is exactly the way Baylan thinks.”
The character became one of the standouts of the series, a new fan favorite. “I think he would’ve been over the moon. The big regret here is that he didn’t get to experience that,” Filoni says. “I’m glad he was at Star Wars Celebration with us, that he got to see the trailer and get a taste of that from the fans. And they’ve been nothing but wonderful about Ray and the character.”
Read more at the link below, and watch the first season of Ahsoka on Disney+ now.
