Unidentified false Jedi

A false Jedi came to the planet Shili to enslave the Force-sensitive infant Ahsoka Tano before she joined the Jedi Order. Many years later, soon after the Jedi were wiped out, Tano was no longer able to feel the Jedi as a whole through the Force, something she had been able to do since she was very young and credited with saving her life in her encounter with the false Jedi.

Behind the scenes
"So this here was a character called Latrans that I was investigating, developing and it was a Jedi that appeared very fair and seemed very kind and had all the things that you'd like to attribute to a Jedi: the flowing robe, the kind of long, graceful hair, a beautiful alien look, but actually, and I think the next slide shows you this, but it was actually a bounty hunter in disguise, and I had surmised that because Jedi children were very rare and imbued with the Force that there would be people in the galaxy that would want to kidnap them and take them away."

- Dave Filoni

The false Jedi was first mentioned in the novel Ahsoka, written by E. K. Johnston and released on October 11, 2016. Months prior to the release of Ahsoka, concept art of the false Jedi&mdash;named Latrans&mdash;was shown at Celebration Europe in 2016, during the Ahsoka's Untold Tales Panel held on July 15.

The first part of the panel showcased sketches by Dave Filoni, who had been the supervising director of Star Wars: The Clone Wars as well as the supervising director of Star Wars Rebels at the time of the panel, for an as-of-yet unreleased story also written by Filoni of how Ahsoka Tano was found by the Jedi Order. The story would see an alien female Jedi, Latrans, come to Tano's hometown on her homeworld Shili to take the child back to the Jedi Order. In truth, however, Latrans would be revealed to be a bounty hunter posing as a Jedi Knight in an attempt to kidnap Tano. A true Jedi, Master Plo Koon, would soon arrive and take Tano back to the Jedi Temple to be trained.

The story, Filoni said, would show that you should not "judge a book by its cover" and "the way someone looks can deceive you," as the beautiful look of Latrans, who was in fact deceiving everyone, would stand in stark contrast to Plo Koon's more "creepy" and "sinister" appearance, when in fact he was the true Jedi.

Filoni presumed that, due to the rarity of Force-sensitives in the galaxy, they would be highly sought after and some may attempt to kidnap them. The residents of Tano's town, having never met a Jedi before, would be none the wiser to Latrans's ruse.

During the panel, Filoni noted that Latrans's design would go on to inspire the look of the Zygerrian species in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, who made their canon debut in the show's third season. Filoni said that, while Zygerrian queen Miraj Scintel had a "rat-like" look, he wanted Latrans's appearance to look more like a "coyote person," as she would be a trickster, deceiving the people of Shili into believing she was a Jedi.

Appearances

 * Ahsoka