Anakin skywalker could have been in star wars: The force awakens

In The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, concept artist Iain McCraig revealed that Hayden Christensen could have returned as Anakin Skywalker in the new film.

As is, The Force Awakens barely mentions the prequels, but McCraig considered that "Anakin's ghost could come back." (Rumors of a possible appearance in Force Awakens by Anakin's Force ghost made the rounds back in September.)


"If we see Anakin Skywalker, because he does flow back and forth between Darth Vader and Anakin, let’s see him as a character with a dark and light side," McCraig explains. "The reason Luke is this whole new entity is because he was the first to acknowledge his own dark side—that it was not separate from him."

Only Darth Vader's charred helmet made it into the final cut, but a few actors from the prequel trilogy did appear in The Force Awakens—Anthony Daniels as C-3PO, Peter Mayhew as Chewbacca, and Ewan McGregor as the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi.

As you might expect, this isn't the only thing that's changed during production. We've recently learned that Star Wars: The Force Awakens once went by a different, more familiar name: Shadow of the Empire.



Star Wars: The Force Awakens was released on December 18 and has reached $1 billion in sales faster than any movie ever has.