The seventh and final season of “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” is currently unrolling on the Disney+ streaming service, the series which gave birth to the fan favorite character Ahsoka Tano.

As we know, the character to date has only appeared in animated form across several shows. However she will be coming to live action shortly with Rosario Dawson expected to play her in the upcoming second season of “The Mandalorian”.

It turns out though that the character was also almost included in George Lucas’ “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones” back in 2002. ‘Clone Wars’ series show runner Dave Filoni explains what happened in a recent interview with Vanity Fair:

“We called her Ashla in the beginning. That was 2005, and that worked on several levels for me. I think it was the name given to one of the [young Jedis Yoda was training] in ‘Attack of the Clones’. There was a little Togruta girl. We kicked around the idea that maybe that was Ahsoka but then we thought the age didn’t really work out for it to be the same character. She was too young in the film. [George] said, ‘This is going to be Anakin Skywalker’s padawan because I want him to have a padawan. People don’t expect that and it will add a way to give him somebody to teach, and it creates a great dynamic between him and Obi-Wan and her.’ And at first it seems like, well that’s a far-out idea. Growing up, I never thought Anakin had a padawan. That’s why George is George. He just perceives things and trusts his instincts and goes for it and ends up creating a character that now is beloved.”

Ashley Eckstein has voiced the character since 2008 and carried the character over to “Star Wars: Rebels”. A sequel series to that show, one that would pick up the story of Ahsoka, could premiere as early as this year.