Star Wars Original Trilogy Edit Makes Perfect Sense 20 Years Later

The iconic scene at the end of the original Star Wars trilogy sees the appearance as Force ghosts Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Yoda and Anakin Skywalker in his true form before becoming the evil Darth Vader.

It's a wholesome moment that shows that the in-universe death of those characters wasn't really the end for them, as well as making it clear that Vader's direct intervention against Palpatine was enough to redeem his spirit and allow him to return in his Jedi form.

In both the 1983 theatrical cut and the 1997 special edition of Return of the Jedi, Skywalker is played by Sebastian Shaw, with the implication being that he appears in a purer form, an earlier version of himself before he was corrupted.

It turns out that absolutely was the intention on George Lucas' part, as he took the bold decision to replace Shaw's Force ghost in the 2004 Special Edition re-release of the original trilogy with Hayden Christensen, smiling away as though he didn't kill a bunch of younglings (too soon?).

That decision proved highly controversial amongst the Star Wars community, but a twist of fate may have set it up to make even more sense than it already did.

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The Ever-Youthful Hayden Christensen

Over on Reddit, one fan pointed out that Hayden Christensen is now only one year younger than Darth Vader was in Return of the Jedi, and his still youthful looks - as seen in the Ahsoka series - make it seem pretty fair enough that Lucas inserted Anakin's younger self in the 2004 release.

As per usual with the Star Wars community, many were keen to weigh in with their own thoughts on the creative decision.

"Well, it is probably more that choosing the almost 80 years old Sebastian Shaw to play the at the time assumed to be in his 50s Anakin wasn't the most wise of decisions.

"Man was and looked 10 years older than Alec Guinness (and Guinness is one of those people who have always looked older than they are)," one said.

"I didn't mind the concept of editing him in, I hated the way they did it. Looks like he's doing a promo hit with his smile and how he's just standing there. They should have had him do some acting in that shot," another added.

To drop my own thoughts in for a second, I actually didn't hate Lucas decision to add that little bit of continuity by including Christensen as a Force ghost.

There were probably better ways to do it, but we live and learn.