Ahsoka Tano has had quite a journey in the Star Wars franchise. She was first introduced in the Star Wars: The Clone Wars animated film, an introduction itself to The Clone Wars series, and was met with a fair amount of backlash by so-called ‘fans’ for her age, clothing, attitude and potentially breaking of canon as Anakin Skywalker’s apprentice. However, she quickly grew a large following of fans and had an incredible amount of development over The Clone Wars and despite the series’ original cancellation and years of fans wondering if she was still alive – even after appearing in Rebels – Ahsoka has persisted.
The biggest development for Ahsoka recently was making the jump from animation to live-action where Rosario Dawson brought her to life in The Mandalorian before headlining her own show, appropriately named Ahsoka. At the Fan Expo Canada convention this past weekend, Dawson spoke about what it meant to her to take on such a beloved role and helping Ahsoka make that leap from animation to live-action with a larger audience.
“I remember when I first put on the costume that Shauna had made and I’m like jumping up and down, doing literal jumping jacks,” Dawson said,” and Jon and Dave were looking at me like reconsidering. Like ‘I think she’s a little too excited.’ But I remember putting it on feeling so amazed because it wasn’t cosplay. This was a new costume, this was a new adventure she was going on and I had no idea where the story was going because I only had that one episode of Mandalorian and there was no guarantee of anything else afterwards. I didn’t know at all the arc that I’d end up with a padawan. It was just so exciting.”
One of the most popular elements to Ahsoka was her relationship with Anakin Skywalker. Anakin wasn’t just her teacher and master, but like a big brother to her, passing on everything he knew and even some of his characteristics (for better and for worse). Their reunion in Rebels when Ahsoka got confirmation Anakin had in fact turned to the Dark Side and became Darth Vader was a heartbreaking one and something that certainly informed her character going forward. In her initial appearance in The Mandalorian Ahsoka hinted how she was still haunted by Anakin’s turn, so much so that it affected her throughout Ahsoka, where she had another reunion with Anakin’s spirit in the purgatory known as the World Between Worlds.
Dawson and Anakin’s actor Hayden Christensen have known each other for decades and she expressed her excitement at not only joining him in the Star Wars franchise, but actually engaging in lightsaber combat against him in the World Between Worlds scene. “It’s Hayden! And he’s heavy-handed so he made the fight look really good. I was really blown away that we were going to have the World Between Worlds. It’s actually one of the only things we filmed that we couldn’t actually see because we didn’t shoot that on the Volume. To watch it myself afterwards and see how they brought it out from the animation was one of the coolest things. And then that swipe he does and then it goes and turns into the Clone Wars, I thought that was so brilliant on Dave’s part because we got to see Anakin and his different garb of that time and Ahsoka as well.”
For Dawson, this was a huge moment as the contrast in seeing Ahsoka at such a young age, where she was played in the Clone Wars flashbacks by Barbie‘s Ariana Greenblatt, to Dawson’s older Ahsoka informed so much of the turmoil within the character. “For fans of the animation it was so cool to see that brought out and also startling to really recognize just how young she was. For people who didn’t know it was a wonderful introduction to her history. It said so much in such a small moment about everything that brought her to this moment in which she is a little bit more stoic, reserved, pulled back and honestly traumatized. It was really beautiful to have that whole arc expressed and see Ahsoka get to a more healed place.”
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Ahsoka’s evolution was what really drew her to this particular moment in Ahsoka’s journey as she was still processing her trauma, both from the Clone Wars and losing Anakin but also facing her own faults as a potential master to a padawan. “It’s really cool to see where she’s at now,” she continued, “not just light of dress now but I think light of spirit. I’m very curious to see now where she goes with it in the story. Obviously with her past a little bit more healed, it doesn’t mean her present and future are not going to be insane now that Thrawn is on the loose. I’m excited to see how the adventure continues.”
How that adventure continues is anyone’s guess as Ahsoka‘s first season ended with Ahsoka and Sabine Wren stranded in an unknown galaxy with no apparent way back home while Grand Admiral Thrawn returned, ready to take his place as the apparent heir to what was left of the Empire. Though Dawson could not divulge any specification information about Ahsoka’s future, if she even knows yet, she did say she hopes now that Ahsoka has come to terms with her past and her relationship with Anakin she will have a freer spirit.
“I’m hoping there’s some levity and lightness that can come to her. I really liked that spunky energy she had when she first came onto the scene. I know that rubbed some people the wrong way, but I really dug that. Natasha [Liu Bordizzo] very much has that spirit in Sabine to perform so I’d really like to be able to play into that a little bit. I love it because Dave compares the evolution of Ahsoka very much in the frame of Gandalf. It’s incredible to experience someone with that level of expertise and power still have places to evolve to and transform to and as he does it he becomes lighter in spirit and there’s more smiles. That’s what I would love because I think Ahsoka’s been going through it and I want to give her some more smiles.”
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Did you enjoy Ahsoka’s journey and Dawson’s performance? Where would you like to see Ahsoka go next? Let us know your thoughts on social media at @FlickeringMyth…
Ricky Church – Follow me on Twitter for more movie news and nerd talk.
