Star Wars fans torn over controversial Anakin Skywalker recast

Did you know the actor who originally played Anakin Skywalker was replaced in one of the Star Wars films, 21 years after it was first released?

Well, if you’re a hardcore Star Wars fan, the answer to that question is probably yes, but that’s not stopped the fanbase from reigniting their hate for the change over 20 years later.

Alright, a bit of backstory first. In 1983, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi hit theatres. Spoilers for a 40-year-old film but, Darth Vader dies at the end and is unmasked. In this scene, he’s portrayed by the actor Sebastian Shaw.

There’s another scene where an unmasked Darth Vader shows up though, and that’s right at the end when he appears as his pre-toasted self.

It’s here that he’s shown as a force ghost, standing next to Obi-Wan and Yoda. Sebastian Shaw also portrayed Anakin in this scene too.

Skip forward to 2004. George Lucas decides to make some changes to the original trilogy for the DVD re-release.

These changes are unanimously agreed to be pretty terrible. For example, this is where the whole “Han shot first” nonsense originated because Lucas decided to edit the film so that Greedo fired off a shot before Han.

It also featured another big, often maligned change: Sebastian Shaw’s force ghost was replaced with Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin in the prequel trilogy.

ICYMI: Andor returns next month.

Over in a thread on the r/StarWars subreddit, fans discussed how they feel about this specific change.

“Was not happy. Ben and Yoda died old and their Force ghosts looked like they did when they died. So why would Vader suddenly become young again in the Force after he dies,” commented user OdysseusRex69.

“And if THAT'S the case, then why didn't Ben and Yoda look over, go 'oh $#!+' and razzle dazzle themselves back to younger versions in the Force? Should have kept Sebastian Shaw.”

“Dumb change,” replied user TwistFace.

“Why would Anakin want to appear the age he was when he betrayed his friends and murdered everybody?”

I think what surprised me most about that thread is that some commenters in there actually like this change, because it makes zero sense to me.

As the majority of the other comments in the thread noted, can you just change your age when you’re a force ghost or what? Either way, I mostly just feel bad for Sebastian Shaw. Imagine getting replaced 20 years later.