The last episode of Ahsoka was a big deal for fans because it brought together the title character with Anakin Skywalker in live-action, with Hayden Christensen returning in a big way. For the characters, it was a case of two people who used to be close to seeing each other again after a long absence. But it turns out that the same was largely true for the actors as well.
In Star Wars: The Clone Wars Ahsoka Tano was voiced by Ashley Eckstein, but Anakin Skywalker was voiced by Matt Lanter, and not Hayden Christensen. In live-action, Christensen is back in the role allowing his Anakin to work alongside Ahsoka, now played by Rosario Dawson, for the first time. It was a big deal for fans to see this moment. And in a video posted to the Star Wars YouTube account, Dawson says that she once spent time in acting school with Hayden Christensen. So for her, like Ahsoka, this was a case of seeing an old friend again. She explained…
I met Hayden when I was 16, and we were in acting school together over a summer. And to have that kind of history with him, it really was like seeing my old friend.
Rosario Dawson is just two years older than Hayden Christensen, so it’s easy to see the two young actors studying together, trying to hone their craft in search of success. Both would fine work as teens in the mid to late ‘90s, with Hayden Christensen of course becoming an overnight star when he was cast in the Star Wars prequels as the older Anakin Skywalker for Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones. Dawson would take a longer road, but would eventually become no less the star.
The episode saw a near-death Ahsoka find herself standing with her former Master, whose spirit took her on a journey through their life together. We even saw a version of Ahsoka as we would have seen her in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, played by Ariana Greenblatt, who is making a career of playing the younger versions of popular franchise characters.
It’s hard to undersell just how big a deal Ahsoka and Anakin together in live-action was for fans. As popular, and important, as the animated series has been to Star Wars on the whole, the movies are still the core part of the story, and so Hayden Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin Skywalker is the definitive one. The Disney+ Star Wars series has been all about recreating that cinematic experience on the small screen.
If there was a little bit of reality that made its way into the scenes between Rosario Dawson and Hayden Christensen, then it almost certainly helped make those moments better. While we’ve likely seen the last of Christensen in Ahsoka the chances of another appearance are not impossible, and the possibility of seeing Christensen appear in the Star Wars galaxy again seems quite likely.
