This Friday, Star Wars icon Ashley Eckstein returns to the stage for the Her Universe geek couture fashion show to kick off this year's Comic-Con@Home! Last year's event was cancelled due to COVID-19, but it's now back with a new theme - "Community" - and plenty of surprises planned.
We'll have more details on that for you soon - in the meantime, check out the 2019 show here - but when we recently caught up with Ashley, we had to ask about her time as Ahsoka Tano.
The Clone Wars wrapped up on Disney+ last year, and Lucasfilm now appears to be focusing on a live-action version of Tano played by Rosario Dawson. Asking if Ashley viewed those final episodes as a farewell or goodbye for now, the actress explained how she feels about her time playing the beloved character
"I approached every kind of chapter with Ahsoka as a potential last chapter," Ashley explained. "I don’t ever take it for granted. I’m so grateful for every opportunity I get to step into Ahsoka’s shoes and so when we had this beautiful gift - and I call it a gift because we didn’t get the opportunity to finish The Clone Wars originally - when Disney+ announced there would be a final season and we’d get to properly wrap up the series."
"When we did get to wrap it up, I was so grateful for it, and I take every moment as saying, ‘Well, if this is the last chance I’m ever going to get to fill Ahsoka’s shoes, I don’t mourn it. I’m grateful for it!’ I don’t look at what I don’t have, but what I do have," the Star Wars Rebels star continued. "I started recording the voice of Ahsoka in 2006 and never in my wildest imagination did I think I would be here in 2021 still talking about Ahsoka. I’m just so grateful for the time that I’ve had to be the voice of Ahsoka Tano that that is how I choose to look at it."
As for whether she's open to playing Ahsoka again, Ashley is definitely enthusiastic. "Of course, do I dream of getting to step into Ahsoka’s shoes again one day? I would love that. I hope I get to do that, but I also don’t look at it that way. I look at it as, ‘Wow, I’ve had the chance to voice Ahsoka Tano now for, oh gosh, going on fifteen years.’ I’m just forever grateful because she’s changed my life."
While it's exciting to think about what Dawson will do with Ahsoka in a live-action setting, it would be a terrible shame not to see more of Ashley's animated take. After all, she's responsible for getting fans to fall in love with the Jedi in the first place, and that debut in The Mandalorian would have been nowhere near as exciting had the actress not spent years getting us to invest in Ahsoka's story.
The Her Universe Fashion Show is this Friday, and you can find more details by heading here.