“Star Wars: The Clone Wars” star Sam Witwer revealed during Cinefix’s “Return of the Jedi” watch party why a young Anakin Skywalker now appears at the end of “Return of the Jedi” instead of the older version (played by Sebastian Shawn in the original release).
What’s going on:
Witwer recently said that “The Clone Wars” finale almost included an explanation to why young Anakin Skywalker appears in the final scene of “Return of the Jedi.”
The line was cut. But, according to Witwer, George Lucas explained the thinking to him, ComicBook.com reported.
“Lucas explained that when you’re a Jedi, and you think of your friends, you can sort of touch them in the Force. You can just kinda reach out and think of your friend, and you get a good feeling, you know that they’re out there. And you look out in the starlit sky, and every one of them is a Jedi. And when the Empire starts taking over, one by one the stars start winking out, and Order 66, boom, almost all of them are gone at once. And when Ahsoka reaches out to touch her friend Anakin he’s gone. She doesn’t sense Anakin Skywalker out there. She assumes that he’s dead, that he was killed. So that idea that Anakin Skywalker died when he did in ‘Revenge of the Sith’ was also built into the ‘Clone Wars’ series and into George’s understanding of how the Force works and how these things work.”
In other words, Anakin Skywalker died when he became Darth Vader. So his Force ghost would look like the younger Skywalker since he died at a younger age.
Witwer said this is the case with many “Star Wars” villains. A lot of them start of looking one way before they embrace the dark side, where they then become different versions of themselves, according to CinemaBlend.
- Witwer said: ”If you look at Darth Vader, the sweep of his helmet is a mockery of Anakin’s hairstyle. His robes are like a mockery of what Anakin’s Jedi robes were. Even Darth Maul becomes a twisted mockery with spider legs and all kinds of weird stuff. Palpatine is completely an evil caricature of Senator Palpatine.”