‘Ahsoka’: Ivanna Sakhno Hopes Her Portrayal Of New Star Wars Villain Will Allow The Audience “To Expand Our Understanding Of That Darkness Within Someone And The Reason Behind It”

John F. Trent |

May 31, 2023

Shin Hati (Ivanna Sakhno) in Lucasfilm's AHSOKA, exclusively on Disney+. ©2023 Lucasfilm Ltd. & TM. All Rights Reserved.

Actress Ivanna Sakhno, who plays Shin Hati, in the upcoming Ahsoka series recently provided some new details about the character as well as what she hopes to portray to viewers.

During an appearance on Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast Sakhno discussed her character saying, “Shin is quite intense and ambitious force-wielder. She is very skilled in lightsaber combat.”

“You know, as you are saying, she is a new character so I don’t want to give away too much of who Shin is as I would love the audience to be able to discover her, but she is Dave’s creation and I hope that despite her darkness of a character we are able to expand our understanding of that darkness within someone and the reason behind it,” she added.

Sakhno concluded, “I love her. I really care so much about her and I feel like it’s my job to take care of her and protect her.”

Sakhno wasn’t the only one to share details about their character. Recently passed Ray Stevenson also provided details on his character Baylan Skoll as well as Shin Hati.

He said, “It’s such an untold journey with Baylan and Shin. And they kind of keep you second guessing. Are they? Aren’t they? What is going on? What are they actually up to? Though they first appear as this then it develops into it could be this or what is it? And then there is something out there, something other. So, it’s a very exciting role to play.”

“And he has a kind of, I would say, inherit nobility. It’s like if you don’t stand in his way, he’s got no malicious attitude at all, but if you do you’d just be swept aside because there’s something that’s driving him that Mr. Filoni and Favreau know and is hopefully going to be revealed through the telling. Just, I mean just breathtaking,” he added.

The official description for the Ahsoka series states, “Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows the former Jedi knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy.”

This emerging threat is more than likely Grand Admiral Thrawn, who disappeared from the galaxy when Ezra Bridger used a number of purrgil to attack Thrawn’s Chimaera Star Destroyer and transport it to an unknown location through hyperspace.

The show’s creator Dave Filoni told Empire Magazine that Grand Admiral Thrawn was the big bad of the New Republic era. He was asked by the outlet, ““Do you see Thrawn as the big bad of this New Republic era? Is that how you’re positioning him?”

Filoni responded, “Definitely, in my eyes. When Timothy Zahn wrote Heir To The Empire, Thrawn became this very iconic villain, because he was different than anything we’d seen before. He wasn’t another helmet-wearing, lightsaber-wielding bad guy, you know?

“There’s a lot of pull to make characters that are like Vader, because it is so iconic,” he continued. “But the boldness that Tim had was to make somebody that wasn’t like that, that didn’t have those abilities, but could fight in a different way.”

Filoni added, “In the words Star Wars, the ‘war’ part of it — him being a Grand Admiral, a leader, a military strategist, a Moriarty archetype, someone that will out-think you, out-strategise you — that really resonated. He’s a critical player in this time period. We’re fortunate to have that character, and fortunate to have Lars [Mikkelsen] playing him.”

The series will also see numerous Star Wars Rebels characters return. In fact, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who plays the live-action version of Hera Syndulla on the show claimed the Ghost crew is “the throughline [of the show].”

She added, “The strength that they need to get through what they’re facing [requires them] to come back together and redefine that family.”

Rosario Dawson, who returns to play Ahsoka, also shared, “I like that there isn’t any structure to this. There’s no boss over them. There’s no-one telling them that they have to do this.”

“This is a carryover from Rebels — these are people who are true believers, who have put themselves on the line, sacrificed everything to be together, and [who] create this chosen family on this mission that they’ve decided they need to be on,” Dawson explained. “That makes it very special.”