'Ahsoka' Director Breaks Silence on Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker Return

Warning! Spoilers ahead for Episodes 1-5 of Ahsoka.

A few tears were shed when Hayden Christensen made a surprise cameo at the end of Ahsoka “Part Four: Fallen Jedi” last week. And now that we’ve officially seen Anakin Skywalker back in action thanks to the stellar “Part Five: Shadow Warrior,” one director is breaking his silence on the legacy actor’s triumphant Star Wars return, which supposedly had “a lot of meaning” to him.

Related: Anakin and Ahsoka’s Reunion Copies an Iconic ‘Star Wars Rebels’ Moment

Things have a funny way of coming full circle in George Lucas’ galaxy far, far away, and perhaps no one understands that better than Hayden Christensen. Plucked out of relative obscurity and thrust into the spotlight at the age of just 19, Christensen had a particularly difficult task, which involved starring in one of the most renowned sci-fi franchises of all time, all while being saddled with the unsurmountable task of playing a young, heartthrob version of the most influential figures in pop culture: Darth Vader.

Joining Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor and Padmé Amidala actress Natalie Portman, Christensen made his franchise debut in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones (2002), where he played the moody Jedi Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, in the years leading up to his corruption to the Dark Side in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith (2005).

Related: ‘Ahsoka’ Slammed Amid ‘Star Wars’ Fatigue and Disney+ Removals

Critics didn’t hesitate to dig into the middle chapter of the Prequel Trilogy, bashing its overuse of CGI, its underuse of cohesive storytelling, and, above all else, its whiny, angsty characterization of Anakin. The movie continues to rank low on lists of the saga today, though its reputation has been somewhat salvaged by a loyal fanbase of Prequel enthusiasts who grew up watching the films in theaters.

Yes, Christensen’s Star Wars journey hasn’t always been an easy one, with the actor facing scathing reviews for his “stiff” and “clunky” portrayal of the Chosen One in the Prequel Trilogy. However, with time, audiences came to appreciate his performance, and after 17 years away from Star Wars, the actor co-starred alongside McGregor in the 2022 Obi-Wan Kenobi miniseries on Disney+.

Now, it seems like fans can’t get enough of Christensen, and when they demanded more of Anakin Skywalker, Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni listened.

Anakin and Ahsoka Tano (Rosario Dawson/Ashley Eckstein) have a long history that dates back to the animated Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) movie. In the film, Ahsoka is selected to be the Padawan of Anakin, much to both of their disappointment. However, throughout the movie and its subsequent seven-season TV show of the same name, the two get closer, and form an unshakable bond as “Snips” and “Skyguy.”

Their master-padawan relationship becomes strained in the later three seasons after Ahsoka is falsely accused of a crime she didn’t commit, and unjustly kicked out of the Jedi Order. After the confusion’s cleared, she’s invited back to the temple, but refuses, abandoning Anakin and her training. Her feelings of betrayal against the Jedi haunt her long past Order 66, but no matter how far she runs, Ahsoka can’t escape her past.

This is addressed in the latest Ahsoka episode, “Part Five: Shadow Warrior.” After the eponymous ex-Jedi is defeated by Baylan Skoll (Ray Stevenson) on the planet Seatos, she wakes up in the mysterious World Between Worlds, a mystical plane that exists within the Force, connecting pathways between space and time. Here, she’s met with a familiar face: the Force Ghost of her old master, Anakin.

The action-packed episode is a trip down memory lane for lovers of Star Wars animation, with Anakin taking his Padawan back to the Clone Wars to teach her one final lesson: “Live…or die.” As Ahsoka attempts to reconcile with her violent past, there’s some genuinely chilling foreshadowing of Anakin’s future/past as Darth Vader, leading to their ultimate lightsaber showdown, which ends in Ahsoka choosing “to live.”

Christensen smiles and says, “There’s hope for you yet,” as the darkness behind him recedes. He then vanishes into the World Between Worlds. Ahsoka wakes up in the waters of Seatos, where she’s rescued by New Republic General Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) and her son, Jacen (Evan Whitten).

Ahsoka Episode 5 is easily one of the best pieces of Star Wars media to grace our screens since the George Lucas era, and much of that praise is thanks to Christensen’s all-in performance, which may have stemmed from his emotional connections to the character he’s played for over 20 years.

Speaking with ITN in a recent interview, “Part Four: Fallen Jedi” director Peter Ramsey opened up about his experience working with Christensen on Ahsoka. Given that this story is a collision of Anakin’s Dark and Light Sides, Ramsey admitted that he “So lucked out” with such a pivotal episode, even going as far as to thank Dave Filoni for giving him “a foolproof episode.”

The reunion between Anakin and Ahsoka has been years in the making, and marks the pair’s first time on screen together, in live-action, at least. Their reconciliation was huge for the actors as well, with Ramsey saying that the scene “had a lot of meaning” for the “sweet” and “low-key” Christensen:

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.

Going back to Ahsoka’s teenage years as a Jedi trainee meant Christensen had to play a drastically different version of Anakin than the one he’d played in the Prequel films, which required a bit of introspection to nail their dynamic for the show. Ramsey imparted some advice on the actor before shooting, telling Christensen to imagine that he hadn’t “seen your daughter in two years” during their reunion:

We just talked about what it’s like for him 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.’

This older and wiser version of Ahsoka is a very different person than the snarky teenager audiences were first introduced to in The Clone Wars, and she still hasn’t completely forgiven Anakin for his actions. Dawson and Christensen certainly had to do some heavy lifting in the emotion department to properly convey the sadness and tragedy of their time apart, which most would agree definitely came across in the scene.

As for Dawson, “she knew what it meant in the story” when it came to her first meeting with Anakin, and wanted to show the confusion and panic of waking up in a place like the World Between Worlds after thinking she’d died at the hands of Baylan Skoll:

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 emotional scene ends with a nice callback to The Clone Wars, as Anakin tells Ahsoka, “Hello, snips,” the nickname he gave her back in the day. While many speculated Anakin’s animated voice actor, Matt Latner, had merged his voice with Christensen’s for the line, Ramsey debunked this theory, saying that as far as he knows, it was just Christensen.

It’s heartwarming to see Christensen being welcomed back with open arms when it comes to Star Wars, and even more heartwarming to know he’s receiving much-deserved praise for a project that has such a personal meaning to him. For now, we can only hope that we’ll see more flashbacks to the Clone Wars and the Prequel era somewhere down the line.

New episodes of Ahsoka premiere Tuesdays on Disney+ at 6 p.m. PT.

Were you happy to see Hayden Christensen reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker for Ahsoka? Let us know in the comments below.