'Star Wars': Who Is The Chosen One? Luke Skywalker, Anakin, Rey, Or Someone Else?

In Star Wars lore, there's an ancient Jedi prophecy that foretells the coming of "the Chosen One," a figure who will supposedly destroy the Sith and restore balance to the Force. Discussions about the identity of this mysterious person have raged in fandom for decades, but the most recent episode of Star Wars Rebels has thrown some gasoline on the fire and pinpointed a potential candidate.

So let's run down some of the options of who the Chosen One could be:

Obi-Wan was originally pretty confident that Anakin Skywalker was the chosen one. He memorably screamed it in Anakin's face during Revenge of the Sith (seen above). In the prequel trilogy, Qui-Gon, Mace Windu, and Obi-Wan all believed Anakin was the Chosen One, but Yoda seemed to be a bit more measured with his opinion, warning that his fellow Jedi may be misreading the prophecy.

The new Rebels episode heavily implies that Luke is the Chosen One. (Spoilers ahead for Star Wars Rebels.)

Before we really dive in, let's make sure we're all on the same page. Saturday night's Rebels episode, "Twin Suns," featured a rematch between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul, the Sith Lord who killed Obi-Wan's mentor Qui-Gon Jinn in The Phantom Menace. Obi-Wan gets the best of Maul in a lightsaber duel, but before Maul dies, he asks the Jedi Knight if the person he's protecting is the Chosen One, and Obi-Wan responds, "He is."

Producer Dave Filoni explained the connection in an interview with io9:

"We have to look at every episode of Rebels as if you've never seen Star Wars before. So if you think of it that way whenever Maul and Obi-Wan are talking about 'The Chosen One' or 'Who are you protecting?' if you never see or we don't give the context of that, there are a lot of people who won't know what's going on there. The Star Wars fan will but the average person will not. So at the very least the scene establishes, in its simplest form, there's Obi-Wan, he was protecting someone, and there's a woman yelling 'Luke,' and we see what we think of as a young boy running. 'Oh, so Obi-Wan is protecting a boy named Luke.' It's designed to give you that specific bit of information that you need in the story."

While that sounds like a confirmation, there might also be room to interpret Filoni's comments as saying Obi-Wan just believes Luke is the Chosen One, not necessarily that Luke is 100% confirmed as the Chosen One. After all, even though Luke was primarily responsible for leading the Rebellion and taking down the Empire, we saw in The Force Awakens that balance had not yet been fully restored.

But there's still a chance for him to make things right, because he'll have a larger role in Rian Johnson's upcoming The Last Jedi later this year, where he'll interact with a certain headstrong young woman who's shown a remarkable ability to control the Force thus far.

If Luke trains Rey in The Last Jedi, and Rey turns out to be the Chosen One by bringing balance to the Force, does that mean Luke is indirectly the Chosen One? And by that logic, was Anakin also indirectly the Chosen One because he was Luke's father and Luke wouldn't exist without him? Is the Chosen One more like a Chosen Family, a lineage of teachers and students instead of a single person? Maybe, even if Rey isn't Luke's biological daughter, he could theoretically still pass the Chosen One factor on to her. So many questions! Let's hope the new movie picks up this strand from Rebels and answers clarifies some things for us.

There's always the chance that a new or different character could swoop into the franchise and be revealed as the Chosen One. (Maybe it's Snoke! Who knows?)

Could Kylo Ren emerge as an unlikely dark horse for the Chosen One spot? Many fans speculate that the next two Star Wars films will be about Kylo's redemption, so it's possible he could be positioned to bring down the Sith from the inside. And he's obviously obsessed with his grandfather, Anakin, and if Kylo's redemption becomes Anakin's legacy, that could explain why Qui-Gon initially misread the prophecy.

What about Finn, who wielded the lightsaber in The Force Awakens? If he becomes the Chosen One, that would also be an interesting arc – from foot soldier to restorer of balance. Or maybe the title belongs to Leia, Anakin's daughter who could destroy the First Order as a General.

But here's an idea: what if there actually isn't a Chosen One at all? What if the prophecy was bogus the whole time, simply made up in the hopes that future generations would attempt to fulfill it by practicing the ways of the Jedi and trying to combat evil however they could? That would make the larger thematic thrust of the Star Wars saga boil down to a powerful allegory about the effects of religion and belief, which sounds like a fascinating topic worthy of exploring over the course of multiple decades and three trilogies.

What do you think? Who is the Chosen One? And more importantly, does it matter?