Tonight’s episode of “Star Wars: Ahsoka” sees Hayden Christensen’s return as Anakin Skywalker – a version of the character we haven’t really seen since the early scenes of “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith”.
SPOILERS AHEAD FOR UP TO EPISODE 1×04
This is achieved by bringing in another element not seen in a while, specifically a time-and-space nexus concept known as The World Between Worlds, which was only previously seen briefly in an animated series. Both the ‘World’ and Christensen’s return were teased last week in the fourth episode.
That episode’s director Peter Ramsey spoke with IGN recently and explained that Christensen was very grateful and happy to return to the role: “He’s a really sweet, low-key guy. He was pretty happy about being there after all this time. It had a lot of meaning for him.” As Ramsey explains, the Anakin we meet will be very different to his last incarnation:
“We just talked about what it’s like for him [Anakin] to be seeing Ahsoka after all this time, that it’s a reunion for them. And I just told him, ‘It’s like you haven’t seen your daughter in two years. She’d gone off to college, and you’re seeing her again, and she’s like a different person but still your daughter.’
On the Rosario side of it, she knew what it meant in the story, and it was just about selling the idea that she was waking up somewhere really having no clue as to what was going on, not understanding ‘am I dead? Am I alive? Am I where I think I could be?’
And the way that expression changes at the very end when she sees him and says his name is so sweet, and it was just like her turning back the person she was the last time she saw him.”
The marketing for the series put the focus on the first four episodes of the run – meaning what’s to come the remainder of the season is largely unknown.
That secrecy even extends to the directors, with Ramsey saying he doesn’t know everything about where Ahsoka will go: “There’s gonna be surprises for me down the line.”
The fifth episode of “Star Wars: Ahsoka” will air later today.
