Ahsoka: Shin Hati Fondly Reminisces About Her First Lightsaber Duel & Flying a Ship in the Star Wars Universe

Shin Hati actress Ivanna Sakhno relishes her time using a lightsaber and flying a starfighter on the Disney+ series Ahsoka.

Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson) finally faced off against Shin Hati, but the Dark Jedi didn’t stand a chance against the one-time student of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen). Actress Ivanna Sakhno brings Baylan Skoll’s (Ray Stevenson) apprentice to life each week on the Disney+ series Ahsoka. And for Sakhno, she’ll never forget the first time her lightsaber blazed to life on set. Sakhno said in an interview conducted prior to the SAG-AFTRA strike (via Star Wars):

“It will always stay within me as the moment when Natasha and I saw our lightsabers ignite for the first time. And I see Natasha’s eyes. And she’s looking into my eyes. And, in that moment, we could really sense that it’s the beginning. It felt like the months of training before and what was about to come balanced each other out and kind of grounded the experience. It felt like we opened the gates into the universe.”

Sakhno refers to the very first episode of Ahsoka and her character’s showdown with the Star Wars: Rebels live-action version of Sabine Wren who is portrayed by actress Natasha Liu Bordizzo. During that one-sided duel, Shin gets the better of Sabine. The Dark Jedi’s orange lightsaber stabs right through Sabine, but she manages to survive.

Ivanna Sakhno Relished Piloting a Starfighter

Another high-water mark of Ivanna Sakhno’s time working in that galaxy far, far away came when her character Shin Hati got to pilot a starfighter in the Star Wars streaming series Ahsoka: Part Three — Time to Fly. Sakhno described the thrilling experience in an interview on Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast. Sakhno said:

"It was the coolest thing in the world! In general, the set - same as for The Mandalorian - we used really advanced technology, so we had The Volume. It's filled with screens and incredible light. But the actual ship and a lot of the aspects of the physical world — they were built for the show.

So, I do remember sitting in front of my cockpit, and really catching my younger self as a kid looking around. And all the buttons were working. And you feel like it's your childhood dream coming true. You really feel like a pilot in a ship, and you get to do this for a living. I just felt giddy and incredibly lucky to be able to experience it."

After being defeated, Shin flees at the conclusion of Part Seven — Dreams and Madness. The Dark Jedi fared quite well against Sabine (Bordizzo) in their short rematch, and Shin even got the upper hand against Ezra (Eman Esfandi) at one point. But Shin didn’t stand a chance against Ahsoka. The final episode of Ahsoka streams Tuesday, October 3 at 9 p.m. EDT on Disney+.