A Huge Star Wars Character Returned on This Week’s ‘Ahsoka’

The following post contains SPOILERS for Episode 4 of Star Wars: Ahsoka, “Fallen Jedi.” Which come to think of it was probably a pretty big clue.

A wise Jedi once said “No one’s ever really gone.” That guy knew what he was talking about; cause it is really true in Star Wars — as viewers of Ahsoka were most definitely reminded this week.

Much of the plot of Ahsoka through four episodes has been about the possible returns of Admiral Thrawn and Ezra Bridger, crucial characters from earlier Star Wars media, most notably the animated series Star Wars: Rebels. But we’re now four episodes into Ahsoka, and neither one has actually appeared onscreen (unless you count a brief appearance by Ezra in the form of an old holographic message he left to his friend Sabine). No, instead, the end of Episode 4 featured the return of a much more central figure in the Star Wars mythos... Anakin Skywalker, as played by Hayden Christensen.

Lucasfilm

Anakin’s appearance was extremely brief; it was the cliffhanger to get you to come back next week to find out just what is happening to Ahsoka. After being thrown from a cliff by Ray Stevenson’s Baylan Skoll, Ahsoka awakens in a strange, starry realm, where Anakin tells her “I didn’t expect to see you so soon.” That’s about all he says before the music begins to strike some darker notes and the episode cuts to credits.

This is Christensen’s second recent return to Star Wars after he had not appeared as Anakin for over 15 years, since 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. (He previously reprised his role as Anakin Skywalker / Darth Vader in 2022’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+.) As for where he and Ahsoka are at the end of the episode, we will presumably find out next week, but it all seems very similar to the “World Between Worlds” that supposedly connects all of time and space together, and was first introduced on Star Wars: Rebels — which, again, has been extremely crucial to the cast and backstory of the entire Ahsoka storyline.

New episodes of Ahsoka premiere on Tuesday nights on Disney+. Sign up for Disney+ here.