When Obi-Wan Kenobi told Anakin Skywalker he was going to balance the power, I don’t think he was thinking anything along the lines of Fortnite.
And yet here we are. The developers of the popular battle royale teased a new visual on Thursday that suggests a young Anakin will be joining the game’s roster of playable characters. Now Darth Vader will not only be able to shoot and kill Anakin, he will also be able to hit The Griddy on his alter ego’s limping body on the battlefield – if the opportunity arises.
Fortnite is a battle royale game with an absolutely massive cast of characters that brings together characters from various franchises from the Marvel, DC and Star Wars universes. Last summer, the developers introduced Darth Vader as a playable skin for the game, so if you play as Anakin now and someone else chooses the Darth Vader skin, you can kill Darth Vader as Anakin (or vice versa). We don’t know when exactly the Anakin skin will land, but we have teaser art for him showing him walking onto the stage.
This particular skin appears to be based on the likeness of a long-haired Hayden Christensen we see Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith and/or the cartoonish version of Anakin from the animated series Star Wars: the Clone Wars. In the footage we see him walking with a lightsaber in hand and spaceships looming.
I’d like to think that Darth Vader kills Anakin Fortnite still brings us to the logical ending of the original series of Star Wars movies. In Star Wars: A New HopeObi Wan Kenobi tells Luke Skywalker about the Darth Vader origin story for the first time, as if Darth Vader and Luke’s father are separate people (rather than one in the same).
“A young Jedi named Darth Vader, who was an apprentice of mine until he turned to evil, helped the Empire track down and destroy the Jedi Knights. He betrayed and killed your father. Now the Jedi are all but extinct. Vader was seduced by the Dark Side of the Force.”
Obviously, this was early in the production of the future franchise, so all the details weren’t fully worked out yet. But now we can play that original scenario as if they were separate people, and Darth Vader can actually beat Luke’s father and himself.