Star Wars: Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni recently praised Hayden Christensen after seeing his lightsaber skills. The 42-year-old actor made his debut as Anakin Skywalker in 2002's Attack of the Clones, and when he reprised his Star Wars role in Ahsoka, he showed that his lightsaber skills are still sharp.
Speaking to Entertainment Weekly, the new Lucasfilm CCO talked about bringing back Anakin Skywalker for the Disney+ series Filoni said that Christensen hasn't lost his edge when it comes to lightsaber duels, and praised his "ferocity of performance.
"His lightsaber skills are just insane," Filoni said. "I mean, he is the Chosen One. There is no doubt."
Filoni told EW that he wanted to work with Christensen for years, and said that they had an "instant connection" when they met at a past Star Wars Celebration.
"It was kind of amazing to have somebody who had this experience, too, who would know the things I was talking about related to Anakin and how George saw him," Later in the interview, Filoni said, "We really understood each other and the language of it."
To make sure that the flashback sequences remained focused on Ahsoka and her complex relationship with Anakin, Christensen binged episodes of The Clone Wars before filming Ahsoka.
“We discussed how this isn’t really a story about Anakin, but it’s important to see how Ahsoka sees Anakin,” Filoni said. “This is her lived experience. [His] story is already told, and George’s saga is done. But this is important for her because you’re her mentor.”
Was the Anakin in Ahsoka "real"?
When Anakin Skywalker appeared during the middle of Ahsoka Season 1, fans are wondering if the version of the character they were seeing was "real". Was Hayden Christensen's cameo just a construction of Ahsoka Tano's mind or his Force Ghost? Ahsoka also went to the ethereal Force dimension known as the "World Between Worlds", so there's also some time shenanigans that could have made his appearance possible.
In a recent interview with Vanity Fair, Christensen addressed those sequences in Ahsoka, and according to him, they would be better left to interpretation for now.
"That's the beauty of how the episode is constructed, in my opinion," Christensen explained when asked about the exciting scene. "Inevitably, the audience has to question what it is they're watching. Is this really the World Between Worlds? What is the World Between Worlds? Is this actually the spirit of Anakin Skywalker, or is this all in Ahsoka's subconscious and we're just going down the yellow brick road as she's drowning and fighting for her life? I think that the episode provides a few really good clues, but it doesn't spell it out for you."
All episodes of Ahsoka Season 1 are now streaming on Disney+. Rosario Dawson recently revealed that Dave Filoni is already working on an outline for the second season, but Disney and Lucasfilm haven't officially announced Ahsoka Season 2 yet.
