‘The Last Jedi’ Director Says He Considered Involving Anakin Skywalker

Lucasfilm

As if Star Wars: The Last Jedi wasn’t already contentious enough, director Rian Johnson recently revealed that he considered using Anakin Skywalker as the Force ghost giving Luke Skywalker advice instead of Baby Yoda, but ultimately decided against it because he felt Luke’s relationship with ultimately with Darth Vader and not the innocent man he formerly was.

Briefly for the tree burning scene, but luke’s relationship was with Vader not really Anakin, which seemed like it would complicate things more than that moment allowed. Yoda felt like the more impactful teacher for that moment,” the Knives Out director said in a brief exchange on Twitter.

While The Last Jedi was already perhaps the most controversial entry into the Star Wars franchise, the inclusion of Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker, perhaps the franchise’s most controversial character, would’ve merely been adding gas to the vitriolic fire.

For what it’s worth, I enjoy The Last Jedi far more than most — it’s easily the best of the sequel trilogy — as I found its third-act to be as entertaining as Star Wars has ever been From the Throne Room scene to the rewarding thematic conclusion to Luke Skywalker’s arc, The Last Jedi was at least willing to take some risks and the result was perhaps the strongest hour in Episodes 7, 8, and 9.

We recently covered the Star Wars sequel trilogy — and the original and prequel trilogies, for that matter — on the Post-Credit Podcast, so make sure to check that out if you want to dive deeper into the Star Wars franchise. We also recap and review the new episodes of The Mandalorian every Friday.

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