How Did Anakin Skywalker Get His Scar?

The Star Wars movies span several decades that existed a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. While there are time jumps in between the trilogies, there is often clear space between the individual films as well. In the original trilogy, we know that Han Solo must have spent a long time encased in carbonite for Luke to have developed as a Jedi and found some ominously dark clothing.

The same is true in the prequel trilogy as we follow Luke’s infamous father on his path to the Dark Side. While Anakin Skywalker becomes an adult between the first and second episodes, the gap between the second and third covers the Clone Wars. First mentioned by Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars film, fans had waited over twenty years to see the conflict play out. But the movies weren’t ready to show us much.

One of the ways we know that three years of action have passed between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith is because of a noticeable scar on Anakin’s face.

Who Gave Anakin His Scar?

Star Wars creator George Lucas has publicly stated that he didn’t think about the scar’s origin when he wrote it into Anakin’s story. He intended it to signify the Jedi’s growth and, no doubt, a bit of foreshadowing for the injuries to come.

As such, we are never given a definitive answer as to who gave the young and conflicted Jedi this distinctive battle scar. It’s not mentioned in the movies, although other parts of the extended Star Wars universes provide more information. 

The most likely answer doesn’t come in the Clone Wars animated series, broadcast between 2003 and 2005, or the more expansive six-season series that followed.

It’s shown in the pages of the Dark Horse comic that followed Anakin’s exploits during the Clone Wars. The comic book publisher released a lengthy arc covering the conflict between 2003 and 2006. Two-thirds of the way through, in Star Wars: Republic #71, Anakin takes on the Dark Jedi Asajj Ventress, a distinctive character initially intended to take a villainous role in Attack of the Clones. During a bruising battle high over the planet Coruscant, it’s against Ventress and her two red lightsabers that Anakin earns his scar⏤or at least it was.

Disney streamlined the Star Wars franchise in 2014, removing the majority of the expanded universe from continuity to sit under the Star Wars Legends label. That included the first 2D-animated Clone Wars and the whole Dark Horse comic run. This means that the Ventress and Skywalker fight is officially non-canon. Unless the franchise decides to revisit that period at some point, the mystery of Anakin’s scar will remain just that⏤a mystery.

Until the circumstances reveal themselves, there’s only one person to blame. If only because he once joked that Anakin received the scar from a slip in his bathtub, George Lucas is the number-one culprit until Disney decides if Anakin’s scar will be formally addressed in the future.