In April 2025, Lucasfilm re -elected “Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith” in the cinemas in honor of the 20th anniversary of the film. Although the initial response of fans to the prequel trilogy of George Lucas was mixed at best and toxic to the worst, the time was nicer with these films, mainly because of the vast canon material such as the animated series “Star Wars: The Clone Wars”, which helped to enrich this era with a deeper narration and a character development. Therefore, The public in 2025 flocked to revisit “Revenge of the Sith” And the tragic fall of Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen), a noble Jedi who is radicalized by Sheev Palpatine, alias Dark Sidious (Ian McDiart), and turns into his new apprentice, Dark Vader (who expressed James Earl Jones).
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The young Anakin Skywalker was represented for the first time by Jake Lloyd in “Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom threatens” in 1999. His follow -up, “Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clone” of 2002, then started to jump 10 years in advance in the chronology of “Star Wars”. However, before Lucas moved to Christensen to continue as the man who would undoubtedly become the biggest villain in cinematographic history, many other actors have been considered and / or interviewed for the role. Interestingly, their ranks include a man who shares young Anakin’s passion for the race. Indeed, said actor would end up being known worldwide for its role in a franchise rooted in the culture of street races.
Paul Walker was in the running to play Anakin Skywalker
“Attack of the Clone” presented the public to an anakin 19, who had spent the last decade training as an apprentice Padawan to the Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor). Since George Lucas has chosen to jump forward in time, rather than continuing with Jake Lloyd, the search for an adult actor to play adult Anakin began. Many actors were in the running for the role, with stars as large as Leonardo DiCaprio considered. Anyway, Paul Walker can be one of the most intriguing candidates who interviewed to play Luc and Leia Skywalker’s father.
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According to a February 2000 report of Weekly entertainmentMany websites placed Paul Walker very high on the list of Lucas contenders for the role of Anakin. However, EW poured ice water on a campfire intimated by Mustafar, a rumor, saying that the 26 -year -old Walker was considered too old to portray the same Sith, 19, because he needed to appear younger than Padmé of Natalie Portman. (Recall that Portman was 19 years old at the time of the main photography on “Attack of the Clone”, while Padmé is 25 years old in the film.)
Naturally disappointed to have missed what could have been the role of a life, Walker finally shared his feelings about being passed into an interview with Movieline teenager (via Time):
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“I was really disappointed that I had not been part of Anakin. But there were rumors that circulated, so I don’t know how much I came to get it. Josh Jackson was apparently in talks to play Anakin too. At the same time, you would be happy if he gets it rather than Hayden Christensen, a non-none of Canada.”
Paul Walker’s franchise activities derived in a different direction
The production of “Attack of the Clone” took place in almost the summer of 2000. Elsewhere, just almost at the same time, Paul Walker was shooting “The Fast and the Furious”, having been interpreted as the film’s protagonist, Brian O’Conner, a Los Angeles police officer attributed to the infiltration of a crew of the street runners. Although, at the time, Walker would probably have preferred to film the next film “Star Wars” under the direction of George Lucas, he did not know that he was on his way to the first entry of what was going to become one of the biggest franchises in the history of Universal Pictures, as well as one of the series of the most precious blockbuster films of the 21st century.
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Despite a role alongside a role in a galaxy far, far, Walker has always been part of the cinematic history itself (although that with a tragic end). He would continue to resume his role as Brian O’Conner in the “Fast” consequences, which are all revealing of the most ridiculous titles in the story of blockbuster: “2 Fast 2 Furious”, “Fast & Furious”, “Fast Five”, “Fast & Furious 6” and “Furious 7.” Unfortunately, during the production of “Furious 7”, Walker died in a vehicle accident. He had not finished his work on the film either, so his Cody and Caleb brothers intervened to help finish things. “Furious 7”, in turn, honors Walker’s heritage in the franchise By ending with a very emotional fence sequence and a shipment for the character of Brian, with a montage featuring Wiz Khalifa and Charlie Puth’s Chart-Topper, “Rego You Again”.
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