Star Wars: The Clone Wars cut an explanation for Hayden Christenson's Return of the Jedi force ghost. The Clone Wars, which bridged the gap between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, eventually overlapping with the latter, had its series finale earlier this year. The Star Wars animated series gave further insight into Anakin's character, especially through the lens of his relationship with Ahsoka Tano.
Ahsoka was assigned to be Anakin's Padawan in The Clone Wars, which lent even more tragedy to Anakin's eventual downfall to the dark side. While they started as a student and teacher, Ahsoka and Anakin eventually became good friends, developing a strong Force connection between them. Both Ahsoka and Anakin experienced ordeals that led them to become increasingly disillusioned with the Jedi Order during The Clone Wars. However, the student and master ultimately chose different paths to confront their disappointment. Ahsoka chose to leave the Jedi Order after being framed for the bombing of the Jedi temple, while Anakin, as every Star Wars fan knows, "died," in a way in order to ascend as the dreaded Darth Vader.
Sam Witwer, who voiced Darth Maul in The Clone Wars, revealed an interesting piece of information about Anakin Skywalker during a Cinefix live-stream watch party of Return of the Jedi. Witwer explained that George Lucas divulged a deeper explanation of the Force that would've been included via some dialogue in the series finale of The Clone Wars. Check out Witwer's explanation of what was cut from the finale below.
"Lucas explained that when you're a Jedi, and you think of your friends, you can sort of touch them in the Force. You can just kinda reach out and think of your friend and you get a good feeling, you know that they're out there. And you look out in the starlit sky and every one of them is a Jedi. And when the Empire starts taking over, one by one the stars start winking out and Order 66, boom, almost all of them are gone at once. And when Ahsoka reaches out to touch her friend Anakin he's gone. She doesn't sense Anakin Skywalker out there...She assumes that he's dead, that he was killed. So that idea that Anakin Skywalker died when he did in Revenge of the Sith was also built into the Clone Wars series and into George's understanding of how the Force works."
Utilizing Lucas's explanation of the Force in the Clone Wars series finale definitely would've added more context to Hayden Christensen's appearance as a Force Ghost in Return of the Jedi. Fans were not thrilled back in 2004 when Lucas replaced original Anakin actor Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen in the DVD re-release of the original trilogy. However, over the years, Star Wars fans have grown to appreciate Christensen's portrayal of Anakin and have forgiven the initially poorly reviewed prequel trilogy. Many fans were disappointed that The Rise of Skywalker wasted the best opportunity to bring Christensen back to bring about a more satisfying end to the Skywalker Saga. In hindsight, Lucas's decision to include Christensen's appearance as a Force Ghost in Return of the Jedi was ultimately the best choice.
The cut dialogue from The Clone Wars series finale contextualizing Lucas's belief that Anakin died during Revenge of the Sith would've enhanced Christensen's Force Ghost appearance even further. Anakin's friendship with Ahsoka successfully laid the groundwork for the idea of the younger Anakin's death when she could no longer sense her former Jedi master after Order 66. While it's unfortunate that the dialogue was ultimately cut, it's refreshing to see that Christensen's Force Ghost appearance in Return of the Jedi is definitely more appreciated now by fans than it used to be years ago.
Source: Cinefix
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