We know that Anakin Skywalker’s father is the Force, according to Star Wars canon and a 2007 interview with George Lucas. We looked at the religious and mythological roots of a virgin birth caused by a deity or spiritual entity in an earlier StarShips post.
Although Anakin was conceived by midi-chlorians, there are other hints that other candidates may have played a role in his mysterious origins. When both canon and non-canon sources are considered, there is an intriguing array of possibilities about not only who Anakin’s father was, but also who might have known about his birth circumstances. Let’s take a look at some theories about Darth Vader’s other parent—and who knows about it.
Anakin’s Father and Human Possibilities
Shmi Skywalker, a slave from Tatooine, was Anakin’s mother. When Qui-Gon Jinn discovered Anakin’s strong Force connection and asked Shmi who Anakin’s father was in The Phantom Menace, she replied, “There was no father.” I carried him, gave birth to him, raised him—I have no idea what happened.” Was Anakin’s father alive?
Some fans speculate that Shmi, as a slave in the far reaches of the galaxy, was the victim of an assault. She told herself—and later Qui-Gon—the lie that “there was no father” as a coping mechanism.
She may also have mentally blocked the trauma, allowing her to say truthfully, “I can’t explain what happened.” In the Star Wars universe, drugs and devices are available to erase specific memories; Shmi’s attacker or someone else could have given her one of these.
There’s also speculation that Qui-Gon is the father and used the Force to erase Shmi’s memory. That means the Anakin-related events of The Phantom Menace are an elaborate ruse on Qui-part Gon’s to ensure his son is raised as a Jedi, but it doesn’t explain JarJar’s supposed “necessity” in anyone’s life, including ours.
Anakin’s Father and the Force
Darth Plagueis, a non-canon Expanded Universe backstory novel, tells us that Plagueis the Wise experimented with controlling midi-cholrians to bring about life. If the name Plagueis the Wise sounds familiar, it’s because you heard it in the prequel trilogies.
Plagueis believed his experiments were always a failure until, just before his death, he realized he’d succeeded with Anakin. Darth Plagueis “accidentally” used the Force to create Anakin, and his apprentice, Darth Sidious, knew exactly how Anakin came to be.
At the end of The Phantom Menace, Supreme Chancellor Palpatine, the public face of Sidious, told Anakin that he would “watch his career with great interest.” Palpatine was well aware of the youngster’s enormous potential, so it wasn’t just a throwaway fan-servicey line.
Here’s the basis for that theory. It comes from Revenge of the Sith, when Anakin and Palpatine attended the opera. Palpatine said:
Darth Plagueis was a Sith Dark Lord who lived many years ago. He was so powerful and wise that he could use the Force to persuade the midi-chlorians to create life (long pause, staring at Anakin). Unfortunately, he taught his apprentice everything he knew, and then his apprentice murdered him in his sleep one night.
Palpatine was familiar with the details of this story because he was the apprentice. This seems to have sailed right over Anakin’s head, but it might have lodged in his subconscious. However, because Palpatine was a Sith, even this apparent moment of “the truth” is just as likely to be a lie as it is the truth.
Certain Force visions Anakin has in canon Darth Vader comics are also involved in the paternity debate. Some fans believe Anakin’s visions indicate that Palpatine manipulated Shmi Skywalker’s womb to result in his pregnancy.
According to non-canon sources and fan theories, Darth Maul was sent to assassinate Qui-Gon in order to prevent him from training Anakin, because a Jedi armed with such Force sensitivity would almost certainly destroy the Sith. The consequences of this had far-reaching consequences for the galaxy. While Anakin was raised as a Jedi, he was deprived of the elder father figure that Dave Filoni insists he sorely needed. Instead, he was given Obi-Wan as a “brother.”
Future Knowledge of Anakin’s Father
The answer to who Anakin Skywalker’s father is may lie in how you define the term “father.” Technically, both in the EU and in canon, his “father” is the midi-chlorians. And, while both canon and non-canon sources mention Sith Lords using the Force in an unnatural way to bring about Shmi’s pregnancy, Anakin is not carrying their DNA. The Force remains his “father.”
Another point of view: The Mandalorian and The Bad Batch have a lot to say about cloning. The sequel films also reveal that Palpatine is a clone-carrier for his Force essence and that the Empire attempted many failed Sith cloning programs. So, who is the biological father of a clone—the original template or the enabler of cloning?
Whatever else we learn from these clone “fathers” will most likely be revealed in this new series. From Attack of the Clones, we know that Jango Fett requested that an unmanipulated infant clone be raised as his son, Boba, who refers to him as his father. But it’s unclear how this relates to Anakin and his origins.
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