The first season of Disney+’s Ahsoka has come to an end, but the streamer has a whole lot of Ahsoka Tano available beyond the eight episodes of the Rosario Dawson-led series. The character debuted in Star Wars: The Clone Wars more than a decade before the live-action series premiered, and would go on to appear across animation in projects like Star Wars Rebels, Star Wars: Forces of Destiny, and Tales of the Jedi. Actress Ashley Eckstein voiced her in animation, and the recent end of Ahsoka left me thinking back to what she said about her character when speaking to CinemaBlend earlier this year.
I spoke with the prolific Star Wars voice actress in July ahead of the ninth annual Her Universe Fashion Show, which she hosts at San Diego Comic-Con to celebrate fandom fashion. For 2023, that included honoring the 100th anniversary of Disney. At the time, the premiere of Ahsoka was still months away, but Eckstein had a message for fans about the series. During our interview, I asked how she feels about the legacy of Ahsoka as a beloved Star Wars character after voicing her for so many years, and she shared some words of wisdom:
The fact that Ahsoka Tano has inspired an entire generation of fans, and the fact that Ahsoka has literally changed lives and saved lives and that she inspires fans every day now, is the most incredible honor and it’s one that I don’t take lightly. It’s the reason why I say Ahsoka lives in all of us, because Ahsoka has really transcended the screen. And now after 15 years of her stories, and the lessons we’ve learned from her and the ways that we’ve been inspired by her, she truly lives in all of our hearts, and in all of our souls and in all of our minds now and we take her with us. I know that I’m not alone, when I ask myself daily, what would Ahsoka do?
Not many Star Wars characters have had their stories told across the various eras quite like Ahsoka Tano, and some fans have grown up with the character since her debut back in 2008. We’ve seen arcs of Clone Wars-era Ahsoka, pre-original trilogy Ahsoka, and post-original trilogy Ahsoka, and Eckstein even had a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The actress went on to share how she feels privileged to hear how much fans love her character:
I do have the privilege of traveling the world and going to conventions and meeting fans from all over the world, and they share their stories with me of how Ahsoka has changed their life or saved their life and how she inspires them daily. I feel like I won the lottery. Ahsoka is not just another role to me. The fact that I get to have such an important part of this character that means so much to people… To me, it’s a privilege to represent this character, to live this character day in and day out.
Voicing Ahsoka was just the beginning of Ashley Eckstein’s involvement in the Star Wars franchise, which has gone on to include writing and hosting Star Wars Mindful Matters, as just one example. She went on to explain how she feels the impact of Ahsoka’s legacy on fans:
I do see now that she has impacted an entire generation of young fans that have grown up with her since 2008, and I’m just so grateful that fans to come now will get to know Ahsoka, just like they got to know Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia, and Anakin Skywalker and Padme Amidala. She’s a character that I will continue to strive to be a real life version of, day in and day out, for the rest of my life.
There are certainly worse Star Wars characters to strive to emulate in real life! Fans have seen Ahsoka try her best to do the right thing across many years and many projects. As Ashley Eckstein said, the question of “What would Ahsoka do?” is worth asking. Fortunately, it’s not hard for fans to revisit her portrayal of the character. The Clone Wars and Star Wars Rebels are available streaming with a Disney+ subscription, both of which are extremely important chapters of Ahsoka’s life.
In fact, both the Clone Wars and Rebels chapters of Ahsoka’s life were key to the live-action Ahsoka series, which ended Season 1 with some fun callbacks to the animated shows. You can also find Ahsoka on Disney+ as one of the growing library of original Disney+ Star Wars shows. For some viewing options set elsewhere than the galaxy far, far away, check out our 2023 TV schedule!