Ahsoka Season 2 Continues To Prove Anakin Could've Stopped Kylo Ren

Published Aug 20, 2026, 11:00 PM EDT

Interestingly, this links to the most recent trailer for Ahsoka season 2. Despite being separated by decades and focusing on an entirely different section of the Star Wars timeline from the one Kylo Ren occupied, Ahsoka season 2 features a major thread between them: Anakin Skywalker himself. Anakin is the grandfather of Kylo Ren, with actor Hayden Christensen reprising the role in Ahsoka season 2 after doing so in season 1. Although Anakin's mentorship of Ahsoka in her battle with Thrawn has nothing to do with Kylo Ren, the trailer for the upcoming show revealed exactly how the Chosen One could have stopped his grandson.

Rather than stopping Kylo with a big display of Force Ghost power, the power of the Mortis Gods, or his superior lightsaber skills, Anakin could have done so with a much simpler method: connection. Ahsoka season 2's trailer makes one thing clear: Anakin remains connected enough to his former Padawan to help her through tough times, as season 1 also highlighted. This is great for bolstering their dynamic, but it raises a massive plot hole: why did Anakin never help Luke, Leia, or Ben Solo in this capacity?

The sequel trilogy was frustratingly devoid of any role for Anakin, despite his strong ties to Luke, Leia, and Kylo Ren. Aside from a brief Force Ghost appearance in Return of the Jedi, the Star Wars movies never show Anakin returning to help his biological relatives after his redemption. Apparently, all of the Chosen One's attention was directed at Ahsoka instead during Star Wars' New Republic era. If Anakin had only guided his children better during their greatest hours of need, including Ben Solo's upbringing, his influence could have stopped Kylo Ren from ever rising.

Live-Action Star Wars Can't Fix Anakin's Issue, But Other Stories Can

It is worth pointing out that, in an ideal world, Anakin would have had more of a role in Star Wars' sequels and guided his children better than he did. After all, the Star Wars movies were made out of chronological order; at the time of the sequels' production, Hayden Christensen was still considered an outcast from the franchise after the reaction to the prequels. Now, with Christensen re-embraced by the franchise, the actors of the original trilogy cannot return to absolve Anakin of his fatherly sins.

That being said, wider Star Wars stories can rectify Anakin's parental issues. Mediums that are not beholden to real-life ages and timelines, like books, comics, or video games, can easily explore Anakin's time as a Star Wars Force Ghost after Return of the Jedi and away from Ahsoka Tano. This way, Anakin can be shown to have guided his children through their turmoils to a greater extent, though admittedly, not to the point of stopping the galaxy-altering rise of Kylo Ren completely.

Ahsoka Season 2 Can Still Address Anakin's Other Relationships

While it remains true that the time has passed for Anakin to have a role in the sequels, Ahsoka season 2 can still address his paternal issues. One thing that the New Republic era has revealed is that Ahsoka was an ally to Luke Skywalker or, at the very least, was his acquaintance. This opens up the possibility for Anakin and Ahsoka to talk about Luke, bridging a gap between father and son that Star Wars failed to bridge before and is almost impossible to rectify, at least on-screen, now.

There is also the possibility of a de-aged Luke Skywalker appearing again in Star Wars, though this has since become a concept that most are opposed to. Instead, we must be grateful for what we have in Star Wars now: Anakin is back, played by Hayden Christensen, and mentoring a character he loved greatly. Although the same couldn't be possible for his children or grandson, Ahsoka season 2 at least offers a link between the Chosen One and his descendants, leaving some room for his family issues to be, in some ways, resolved.