I’m Worried Star Wars’ New Boss Doesn’t Understand Darth Vader At All (& There’s Proof)

Following Kathleen Kennedy’s retirement in February of this year, Dave Filoni—George Lucas’ own long-time protégé—became Co-President of Lucasfilm, along with Lynwen Brennan. Reportedly, Brennan will be handling more of the business operations, whereas Filoni’s role will primarily focus on the creative side, which makes sense given that he became the Chief Creative Officer of Lucasfilm in 2023. However, there was still some concern about the impact of this transfer of leadership on Star Wars movies and TV shows when the news was announced. Granted, Kennedy faced her own battles when it came to negative reception and backlash.

Change always creates a bit of nervousness and doubt, arguably even more so than usual in the Star Wars fanbase. In part, Filoni’s history of focusing on his brain children (Ahsoka Tano, Ezra Bridger, etc.) rather than building out new ideas in Star Wars and questions about whether he would remain loyal to the source material were both of concern, with the latter now particularly raising eyebrows. Specifically, after Filoni’s recent comments about Darth Vader following the Sith’s cameo in Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord, concerns have risen once again.

Dave Filoni Sees Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader As Different Characters

Star Wars’ newest TV show, Star Wars: Maul – Shadow Lord just concluded with its two-episode finale on May 4, and within those two episodes was a surprising and thrilling new cameo: Darth Vader himself. In a perfectly creepy scene in which Vader’s labored breathing can be heard before he emerges from the shadows, Vader reveals himself, and he and Maul (along with Devon and Master Eeko-Dio Daki) go head-to-head. Interestingly, despite many fans expecting banter especially between Maul and Vader, the latter remains silent the entire time.

Regarding that choice, Filoni, per Polygon, said, “The key to Vader for me is that he’s not Anakin. He doesn’t recognize that. He can’t. Anything that reminds him of Anakin, he’s going to destroy. So when he sees a Jedi, he’s going to destroy the Jedi, because the Jedi would remind him unconsciously or consciously that he betrayed all of his friends and everything he knew and the life he grew up with. For what? For nothing. He lost everything. He made a bad trade. He was lied to. He was deceived. He can’t accept that truth.”

Filoni continued, “The key is not to actually give [Vader] a character. He’s devoid of it because he doesn’t care. Darth Vader does not care. He does not have compassion. He does not see you. He sees the thing he wants to destroy, and he will do that.”

There are elements of what Filoni said that feel very true of Anakin/Vader and are important for audiences to understand in order to in turn understand Anakin as a character. However, there are other aspects of these comments that are downright jarring because they feel so off-base. Most significant is the idea that Vader and Anakin are not the same person, which is both literally and (even in the way that Filoni means it) figuratively false. Moreover, the idea that Vader isn’t a character and simply doesn’t care also feels like it completely misses the mark.

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Seeing Anakin And Vader As One Is Critical To His Character

It makes sense to say that, in Anakin’s mind, he and Vader are two separate beings. Audiences see that immediately when he falls to the dark side in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. Although he answers to Anakin when speaking to both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padmé, even after his fall, he is already working to kill that part of himself off—again, metaphorically, not literally—and he’s working hard to fully adopt his new Sith persona and not look back. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show reinforces the same, with him insisting Anakin is “gone” and he is “what remains.”

Of course, this all started with the original trilogy as well, which made it clear that the titular Jedi who returned was Anakin. In Return of the Jedi, Vader therefore also represented that same split between Anakin Skywalker the Jedi and Darth Vader the Sith. In all of these examples, however, Anakin was never literally a separate character from Darth Vader. Yes, he had embraced the dark side of the Force, and he quickly became corrupted by it and consumed by anger and hate. Underneath that, though, this is still Anakin.

In fact, this is an essential aspect of Anakin’s character, and it’s why the arguments that Anakin falls too quickly never really hold up. Anakin’s fall to the dark side isn’t all of a sudden. Star Wars: The Clone Wars perhaps did more than any other Star Wars project to drive that home, but even throughout the prequel trilogy, audiences see the stepping stones to Anakin’s eventual full-fledged fall.

He kills the Tuskens in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. He kills opponents and beats Rush Clovis nearly to death in The Clone Wars. He was flawed and angry and violent, even years before he became Vader. Yet, equally important is the other side of Anakin—the side that was manipulated by Palpatine and, as controversial as it may be to say, treated poorly by the Jedi from the moment he arrived on Coruscant in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.

It is critically important to understand that these disparate traits and wildly different experiences (comparing Anakin’s slaughter of the Tuskens to his kindness as a young boy, for example) are all Anakin. And, just as importantly, all of these elements are a factor in why he falls to the dark side, and they are likewise all a factor in how he returns to the light.

Does Dave Filoni Truly Understand Darth Vader?

Ultimately, these comments from Filoni raise questions about the extent to which he really understands the character—a massively important question, given that Star Wars is now heavily in his hands. It’s true that Anakin cannot face what he has done and he constantly seeks to destroy anything that reminds him of his past life and all that he has lost.

That is worlds apart from Filoni’s claims that Vader isn’t Anakin, though. That assertion suggests that Filoni fundamentally misunderstands Anakin and what makes his story so powerful and compelling. And that, especially, feels like very troubling news for Star Wars’ future.

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