The Acolyte Just Changed Everything We Know About Anakin Skywalker's Birth

The Acolyte’s protagonists, twins Osha and Mae, are classic Star Wars heroes. They’re young, powerful siblings who have complicated ideas about the Force and destiny, and who lost all their other family members; in Episode 1, Yord reminds Osha her Jedi training was untraditional because she was in mourning. She lost her mothers, her sister, and her entire village in a fire. While we learn twin sister Mae is actually alive and well, we still get a glimpse into the Aniseya twins’ tragic backstory.

Then, in Episode 3, we get a deep dive into precisely what happened that fateful night. But one key line suggests these two characters aren’t just powerful Force users: they could have something in common with Anakin Skywalker himself.

In Episode 3, Mother Koril discusses Osha’s decision to be trained as a Jedi with Mother Aniseya. Aniseya insists it’s her decision, but Koril argues that she carried the twins. “I created them,” Aniseya retorts.

“And what happens if the Jedi discover how you created them?” Koril says. Aniseya doesn’t have a response. She’s clearly hiding something shameful about the origin of the only children in a community entirely of women, but this isn’t the first time we’ve seen a powerful Force user without a clear father.

In The Phantom Menace, when Qui-Gon Jinn asks Shmi Skywalker who Anakin’s father is, her response is vague. There was no father,” she says. “I carried him, I gave birth, I raised him. I can't explain what happened.” Star Wars fans have taken this as confirmation that Anakin was “born of the Force,” someone so imbued with midi-chlorians that they’re spontaneously conceived.

But was he really? In a rough draft of Revenge of the Sith, George Lucas had Palpatine explain, “I used the power of the Force to will the midichlorians to start the cell divisions that created you.” The comic Darth Vader #25 also implies Palpatine had a hand in Anakin’s conception, although this is later dismissed as a figment of Anakin’s imagination.

So Anakin’s father (or lack thereof) was never confirmed, but The Acolyte could finally provide some explanation. If midi-chlorians can really be manipulated to kick-start conception, it’s possible Mother Aniseya used this power on Mother Koril. But why would that be so shameful to the Jedi? Maybe the truth is darker: Aniseya asked a Sith to use the Dark Side to create these twins, who would go on to find themselves on opposite sides of the Force. If so, maybe Palpatine had a hand in Anakin’s birth after all. He certainly manipulated everything else that happened on the Star Wars timeline.

The Acolyte may take place a century before Anakin was even born, but these mysterious children could reveal much about the Chosen One who would follow in their footsteps. This could be a major shakeup to Force, Jedi, and Sith canon... and it offers us some insight into the practical family planning measures of a universe teeming with space magic.

The Acolyte is streaming on Disney+.