Was Anakin Skywalker Supposed To Be In Star Wars: The Force Awakens?

A while back, we heard some rumors that stated Hayden Christensen, who portrayed Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels, had been working with the stunt team on Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Of course, the character was nowhere to be seen in the movie, but if the Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens book is to be believed, the filmmakers originally planned to include him.

As you can see from the photos in the gallery below, which are taken from the book, concept artist Iain McCaig says that he initially proposed having the Force Ghost of Anakin appear in Episode VII. While that obviously didn’t end up happening, fans are speculating that the character could show up in Rian Johnson’s Episode VIII instead.

In fact, McCaig has an interesting theory about how Anakin can be used in future films. He believes that when the character died, he didn’t go fully into the light side of the force and instead got stuck between the light and the dark, meaning he’ll be able to communicate with both Rey and Kylo Ren in Episode VIII, or wherever he ends up appearing.

Of course, this is all just speculation for now, but it’s certainly an interesting idea to ponder. Unfortunately, we won’t have any sort of confirmation for a very, very long time, but while we wait, why not check out the photos below and let us know in the comments section if you would have liked to have seen Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Force Awakens.