Ahsoka Tano’s story is coming to an end
Before she became one of the most recognizable voices in the Star Wars universe, actress Ashley Eckstein was just a kid in Orlando with an orange shag carpet and a dream.
It was as a toddler that Eckstein, like many ’80s babies, discovered the original Star Wars trilogy through the power of VHS tapes. She recalls her mother not being too fond of the orange carpet, but to Eckstein, it was another world.
Tatooine to be exact. The dry planet with two suns that was the childhood home of Darth Vader.
Eckstein, while pretending to be lovable droid R2-D2, would imagine that the carpet was the sands of the desert world that gave us the galaxy’s greatest evil. She had no clue at the time that her vocal cords would one day help create someone who is becoming just as iconic to true fans. Ahsoka Tano is that icon. Over the animated course of one film and seven seasons of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Eckstein has been the voice, heart and soul of Ahsoka Tano, the one-time apprentice to future Darth Vader, Anakin Skywalker.
The character has grown up and out of the shadow of her former Jedi Master. She is now the moral centre of the story as The Clone Wars, which — after travelling from the initial movie version in theatres to a show on Cartoon Network, then Netflix and now Disney+ — is finally coming to an end.
Six years passed between the series’ sixth season on Netflix in 2014 and the final one that began in February. But now that the final episode has begun streaming on Disney+, Eckstein is elated to see the tale come to a satisfying close.
“It’s definitely been an emotional journey for sure,” Eckstein said. “I’m so grateful that we were given the opportunity (for a final season) because not only does Ahsoka Tano deserve a proper ending in The Clone Wars, but the fans deserve it.”
When George Lucas and Dave Filoni created the character for the initial 2008 film The Clone Wars and hired Eckstein to voice her, she felt as though she was given the piece to a puzzle that had long been hidden. It wasn’t until the film’s debut that it was revealed that Anakin Skywalker had an apprentice. She was just as shocked as fans were.
What intrigued her the most about The Clone Wars was the chance to be a female Jedi with a leading role.
“That was a really big deal. And I wanted to do right by it,” Eckstein said. “I wanted to live up to the opportunity that was given to me and the expectations that were put on me.”