This story about the Jedi temple on Lothal was conceived as a single episode, titled “Past, Present and Future,” but it soon became apparent during scripting that it would take more than 22 minutes to cover all its action. When the episode was split into a two-parter, this first part was titled “Past, Present” before finally settling on “Wolves and a Door.”

When exploring the connection between the Loth-wolves and the Loth-cats, the film Princess Monoke was cited as a source of inspiration, particularly the connectivity between kodama and wolves seen there.

The voices heard in the hyper tunnel journey include clips from Season One episodes “Spark of Rebellion,” “Path of the Jedi,” “Vision of Hope,” and “Fire Across the Galaxy”; from Season Two, there’s “Siege of Lothal.”

The recording of Thrawn that Chopper plays to distract the biker scouts is from Season Three’s “Zero Hour.”

New designs for this episode include the Mining Guild excavation driller, Sabine Wren as a scout trooper, Minister Veris Hydan and the Emperor.

Guest-starring in this episode as Hydan is Malcolm McDowell (from A Clockwork Orange, Halloween, Star Trek Generations) and Ian McDiarmid reprising his role as Emperor Palpatine.

In earlier versions of the story, Hydan was to be Vaneé, the mysterious attendant in Darth Vader’s castle in Rogue One, which was in production at the time. The changing needs of Hydan’s story made it easier for them to be unrelated characters, though they do at least seem to come from the same kind class of creepy advisors often seen around the Emperor.

The PA chatter that advises “there is a safety hazard zone in standing 25 meters from the temple. Special teams are exempt, and look out for static charge,” is a nod to a similar announcement made during the arrival of the mother ship in Close Encounters of the Third Kind.