The Big Picture
- Droids in Star Wars play essential roles, and Huyang is no exception. As the Jedi’s lightsaber architect, he helps young Jedi to build their lightsabers.
- Huyang was created to solve a problem in the “Young Jedi” arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars Season 5, allowing Ahsoka to prove her strength and take on more responsibility without overshadowing her character development.
- Despite nearly being cut from Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Huyang’s role expanded with his appearance in Ahsoka, as he becomes a character who preserves Jedi traditions and offers guidance to Ahsoka.
Star Wars has a long history of including droids in the story. Though droids rarely get the respect they deserve, they are the backbone of their society, offering technical assistance, translating, and performing any other tasks required of them. These mechanical beings also represent several of the most iconic characters. From the nervous C3PO (Anthony Daniels) to the mischievous war criminal Chopper (Dave Filoni), many droids play an essential role in the franchise. This is the case for Huyang (David Tennant), who joined the Jedi in Ahsoka on an intergalactic adventure. With his unique position as the Jedi’s lightsaber architect, Huyang performs an important job even before he becomes Ahsoka’s (Rosario Dawson) reliable companion. But the live-action series isn’t the first time Huyang shows up. He first appeared in Star Wars: The Clone Wars during the “Young Jedi” arc of Season 5, helping the younglings to build their first lightsabers. Yet Dave Filoni admits that the lovable droid almost didn’t make the cut.
Originally, there wouldn’t have been a specific character to build the lightsabers, instead, the role would fall to one of the many Jedi Masters. Yet that brought up a major problem: the stakes of the arc. The “Young Jedi” storyline introduces Jedi traditions, but, more importantly, it allows Ahsoka (voiced by Ashley Eckstein) to demonstrate her growth as she protects the younglings. But if Ahsoka were not the highest-ranking Jedi on the ship during the attack, she wouldn’t have to shoulder the same responsibility. Huyang was created to solve this problem, a droid to handle the lightsaber building without overshadowing Ahsoka when the moment came. With his role in Ahsoka, Huyang has proven himself to be a creative solution with many benefits.
Huyang Was the Perfect Solution for ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’
Consisting of four episodes, the “Young Jedi” story follows a group of younglings finding their kyber crystals, making their lightsabers, and facing a pirate attack. While Yoda (Tom Kane) accompanies them to the planet Illum for the first step in their journey, he soon leaves Padawan Ahsoka Tano to watch over them on their trip home. Yet they are attacked by Hondo Ohnaka (Jim Cummings), who captures Ahsoka in her attempts to guard the youngling. They rescue her in time for General Grievous (Matthew Wood) to attack Hondo’s ship, leaving another threat to fight off. This arc demonstrates Ahsoka’s strength as she fights Grievous, who is more powerful than many Jedi, much less Padawans. Yet it also shows off her maturity as she doesn’t charge forward and refuses the opportunity to escape as she would have earlier in the show. Though Huyang’s part is limited, there was a long discussion about the process of building a lightsaber that went into his creation.
Filoni explained that at first, Yoda was intended to join them throughout the story, helping to construct lightsabers in place of Huyang. While an appearance from the little green Jedi Master is always welcome, his presence presents a problem. With a fighter as skilled as Yoda, Ahsoka wouldn’t need to prove her strength. So the creative team pivoted, coming up with the idea of using a different Jedi Master, even suggesting a sword master specifically, establishing the idea of someone whose job was to work on lightsabers. Yet this brought up a similar problem, because if there is a Jedi Master, Ahsoka is not in charge, nor is Hondo so much of a threat. Ahsoka was established to be more skilled than the average Padawan, and the help of any Jedi would make the story less of a chance to prove herself. So, the writer of the arc, Christian Taylor, came up with the concept of Huyang.
Though, initially, Filoni didn’t love the idea, he came around, admitting that a droid filling this role for the Jedi made sense and solved their problem. So, Star Wars: The Clone Wars began work on a new droid. When it came to casting, Filoni immediately thought of David Tennent for the role. While working on the story, Filoni was watching Doctor Who, and Tennant’s performance impressed him. Upon learning that Tennant is a Star Wars fan, Filoni thought it would be fun to merge the two worlds. Filoni is known to offer cameo roles but only chooses characters he believes to be especially good. Fortunately, by this time, Huyang had been developed enough to earn Filoni’s interest despite his initial hesitancy. So, he reached out to Tennant, who took the role with enthusiasm, giving Huyang the voice that fans have come to love.
Huyang Was Almost Cut From ‘Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ Again
Though Huyang was the perfect fit in the story, “Young Jedi” nearly didn’t make the cut for Season 5. In fact, the arc wasn’t intended to be in the show when the trailer was released. With too many ideas and not enough episodes, the creators had to prioritize the most essential arcs, and while it is a great story, “Young Jedi” has little connection to the overall plot. Had this decision stood, it would have removed Huyang from Star Wars: The Clone Wars. The show is no stranger to unreleased episodes, and several of these storylines have been, suggesting Huyang could have shown up in other material even if “Young Jedi” was cut.
Some of the extra stories have been transferred into other formats, like the novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple by Christie Golden, which explores an Asajj Ventress (Nika Futterman) centered story meant for Season 7. Other unaired stories have been outlined at events, including one featuring the Wookie homeworld, which is referenced in Star Wars: The Bad Batch despite never being released. Even “Young Jedi” was shown at the Star Wars Celebration before Season 5, as it wasn’t expected to make the cut. The reference to an unreleased episode in Star Wars: The Bad Batch proves that Huyang could have shown up in Ahsoka even if “Young Jedi” were not included in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, though without a previous appearance, his presence wouldn’t have meant as much. Fortunately, the arc was deemed critical enough to Ahsoka’s character development that it was added back to the show, and fans met Huyang before the Jedi Order was destroyed.
Huyang’s Character Became More to ‘Star Wars’ Than a Creative Solution
Though he was created to fulfill a specific purpose and maximize the danger in the “Young Jedi” arc, Huyang proved to be more. As a droid, Huyang performed his job for thousands of years. Therefore, he knows more about the Jedi than anyone. Not only did his presence add to Jedi lore by showing the rite of passage that gets Jedi their lightsabers, but his knowledge helped to preserve traditions after Order 66, giving him a new level of importance in Ahsoka. Throughout the series, he reminds Ahsoka of how things should be done, and occasionally she listens. Though Ahsoka is no longer a Jedi, she is one of the few alive with knowledge of the culture, but Huyang is another, more permanent way to preserve the Jedi ways. His position also gave him personal knowledge of any Jedi the show wished to reference. This allowed him to naturally mention Kanan (Freddie Prinze Jr.) to Ezra (Eman Esfandi) without making the connection seem too convenient.
Though his role in Star Wars: The Clone Wars is small, with the additional screen time in Ahsoka, Huyang quickly became recognized as one of the best live-action droids in the franchise. As the series brings him to the forefront for the first time, it expands his connection to Ahsoka, which is especially sweet as he was created to further her character development. Huyang still assists Ahsoka’s growth by talking her through her frustrations and helping her relate to her apprentice, Sabine (Natasha Liu Bordizzo). Because he was developed to support Ahsoka’s character, Huyang is the perfect addition to Ahsoka.
Ahsoka is available to stream on Disney+ in the U.S.
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