The Star Wars sequel trilogy concluded with The Rise of Skywalker last year and only included a couple of Force ghosts physically manifesting. The Last Jedi saw Yoda mentoring Luke Skywalker from beyond the grave, while he ended up doing the same for Rey in The Rise of Skywalker. Of course, we did hear the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Force Awakens, plus the likes of Anakin and more deceased Jedi masters when Rey defeated her grandfather Palpatine in Episode IX.
Nevertheless, some Star Wars fans had hoped to see Hayden Christensen reprise Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost physically.
After all, the prequel trilogy actor was famously edited into the end of Return of the Jedi by George Lucas.
While concept art for JJ Abrams’ The Force Awakens saw ideas for an Anakin Darth Vader hybrid Force ghost that never came to be.
Nevertheless, The Last Jedi writer and director Rian Johnson has now revealed his original plans to include a physical Anakin Force ghost in Episode VIII.
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Here Luke writes of Obi-Wan, Anakin, Qui-Gon and Yoda becoming Force ghosts after their deaths.
The text reads: “At first, I only heard Obi-Wan’s voice in my head, but I later discovered that he could manifest as a fully visible apparition and even interact with the physical world.
I“That knowledge was then passed down to a select few, including Obi-Wan, Yoda and my father.
“Their spirits guided me for many years but vanished when I shut myself off from the Force. It’s a relief to feel their presence again after all this time.”
So here we learn that after their appearance together at the end of Return of the Jedi, the three Force ghosts guided Luke in that three-decade period up to the events of The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi.
However, when Luke shut himself off from the Force and became a hermit on Ahch-To, they disappeared – yet now he feels their presence again.
The first glimpse of this was presumably his conversation with Yoda’s Force ghost in The Last Jedi.
With future Star Wars movies and TV shows in the works, who knows what Force ghost will feature? Perhaps even Qui-Gon Jinn advising Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming miniseries set after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith?
