A new Star Wars novel highlights just how badly the sequel trilogy treated Anakin Skywalker and underscored the strangeness of his absence.
While Anakin Skywalker’s appearance in the novel Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith is welcome, it makes his absence from the Star Wars sequel trilogy all the more jarring. The influence of Darth Vader is felt throughout the sequel trilogy, as Kylo Ren talks to his grandfather's old mask, now grotesquely warped and melted. But, by the time of the sequels, Anakin Skywalker had found redemption, and Darth Vader is no more, meaning that Anakin's influence is not present in the sequel trilogy.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith is a novel by Adam Christopher, due for release in June 2022, following what happened to Luke Skywalker between the original trilogy and sequel trilogy eras. In a free-to-read excerpt from the novel, Luke finds his spirit transported to the dark world of Exegol where he confronts the dark specters of nine Sith. At an impasse, he’s unable to defeat them, until he receives help from his own father, as the Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker appears at his side.
Anakin Skywalker being able to appear as a Force ghost makes the entire Star Wars sequel trilogy perplexing. He could have easily prevented the entire central conflict of the story by speaking even once with his grandson. The fact that he doesn’t makes it feel almost like an insult to hear Kylo Ren speak of finishing what Darth Vader started. Darth Vader had already finished it, turning his back on the Empire and returning to the light side. This was the whole point of two whole trilogies. The ending of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi saw Anakin Skywalker’s Force ghost standing alongside the ghosts of Yoda and Obi-Wan, confirming that he was now free from the dark side’s grip, and Shadow of the Sith doubles down on this, with Anakin’s ghost fighting alongside Luke. But throughout the Star Wars sequel movies, Anakin’s deafening silence underscores an unfortunate truth – the Star Wars sequels utterly failed Anakin Skywalker, never even mentioning his name.
The Star Wars sequel trilogy is preoccupied with nostalgia, with Star Wars: The Force Awakens arguably leaning a little too far into being a reaction to the original movie, Star Wars: A New Hope. After nearly every major character from the original trilogy makes a return throughout the course of the Star Wars sequels, it becomes glaringly apparent that characters from the prequel trilogy and from Star Wars: The Clone Wars are entirely overlooked, apart from a couple of fleeting voice cameos. While it would make no sense for characters like Mace Windu or Qui-Gon Jinn to be involved, Anakin had every reason to make an appearance.
In Shadow of the Sith, the appearance of Anakin is such a powerful moment, showing Luke and Anakin Skywalker stand together, truly marking how far they both have come. It’s the perfect way to follow Anakin's redemption, and it also makes sense thematically. Throughout his entire story, Anakin Skywalker is driven by one goal above everything else – he has a burning need to protect his family, both the family he’s born into and the family he chooses. This is the most central aspect to his entire character, driving both his fall to the dark and his return to the light. With this in mind, it makes no sense at all that Anakin would see the chaos embroiling his family and simply do nothing. The Anakin who fought in the Clone Wars would move galaxies to help those he cared about.
Star Wars: Shadow of the Sith undoubtedly holds many more secrets to be revealed after its release. It’s still entirely possible that Anakin simply couldn’t return in the Star Wars sequel movies for some reason (notwithstanding a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker). There’s still a lot of story unwritten between the original trilogy and the sequels but, at this point, any explanation which is given will be a retcon. It won’t change the fact that the Star Wars sequels did a disservce to Anakin Skywalker, even while shoehorning in Palpatine’s reappearance.
