Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen first appeared on screen together while working on 2003's Shattered Glass but originally met as teenagers in a summer acting class. As you'll know their big reunion came in last year's Ahsoka when they reprised their respective Star Wars roles as Ahsoka Tano and Anakin Skywalker.
The relationship between the two characters was first explored in The Clone Wars animated series (where Ashkey Eckstein and Matt Lanter played them). This first live-action meeting meant a lot to fans and, as it happens, had a major impact on the actors themselves.
"We just had so much fun," Dawson tells Entertainment Weekly (via SFFGazette.com). "I tell you the entire crew made an excuse to be on set those days. It just brought tears to all of our eyes. It was wonderful. I love Hayden. He's such a wonderful man."
"You know, I got to meet him and get to know him a little bit when we were younger, and I saw a lot of that journey he went through when he became a part of the series."
As for what he brought to the series as Anakin for that meeting in the World Between Worlds, Dawson shared her take by saying, "Sith Anakin, we never got to see that. We only got to see him become Darth [Vader]. We got the seeds of that a little bit in the films, but we didn't get to sit with him for very long in that. So it was nice to see him be in the Clone Wars clothing, all of that stuff."
Following that memorable sequence, we got to see Christensen play a hologram of Anakin recorded at the height of the Clone Wars and as a Force Ghost in Ahsoka's closing moments.
Explaining the thinking behind Anakin's surprise appearance during that training sequence, Dawson revealed the original plan was for the Jedi to appear aboard her ship as a Force Ghost. "We ended up tweaking that and playing with it a little bit," she explains.
"That moment with him coming out of the World Between Worlds was so significant, so it didn't make sense to necessarily have like another dialogue scene with him - because how could you really build on that in that way? So we transformed that."
"We sort of shifted it a little bit so she was watching him as a hologram, rather than Force ghost conversation," Dawson adds. "It also makes that moment in the World Between Worlds more ephemeral, like, What was that? Is she just dreaming? Is she really talking to herself? It's nice to keep that as a question mark."
We'd say Dave Filoni made the right decision there, particularly as that big cliffhanger on Peridea now leaves the door open to Anakin guiding his former Padawan back to her own Galaxy as a full-fledged Force Ghost.
Having Anakin appear in the form right away would have largely robbed the ending of its impact and made him too readily available to the title character in the second half of the season.
All episodes of Ahsoka are now streaming on Disney+.