Star Wars has used animation to fill in a lot of blanks when it comes to the story of Anakin Skywalker, starting with The Clone Wars. Matt Lanter stepped in to voice the character previously played by James Earl Jones and Hayden Christensen. With The Clone Wars pretty conclusively over as of Season 7 and follow-up Star Wars Rebels wrapped after four seasons, there was no certainty that Lanter would be called upon to play Anakin again, but now the actor has big news for fans.
Soon to arrive at Netflix with the premiere of the upcoming Jupiter's Legacy, Matt Lanter spoke with EW about his future with the Star Wars franchise, saying:
There's some new Lucasfilm Animation going on. I've been a part of some things I can't talk about yet. You'll see Anakin again. I never quite put Anakin down, whether I'm doing a video game or something new for Lucasfilm Animation.
Matt Lanter's time voicing Anakin didn't end just because the final season of The Clone Wars released on Disney+ in 2020. Considering the secrecy surrounding the Star Wars franchise in general, it's not surprising that Lanter didn't give away what projects he has worked on as Anakin since The Clone Wars, but there's at least one animated Star Wars TV show that has already been confirmed: The Bad Batch.
Star Wars: The Bad Batch will debut in less than a week as the latest major animated Star Wars TV show, and the show actually has its origins in the final season of The Clone Wars thanks to the introduction of the Bad Batch group of Clone Troopers with unique genetic mutations. There is no news one way or the other at this point if Matt Lanter's Anakin Skywalker will make an appearance, and it may depend almost entirely on when in the Star Wars timeline The Bad Batch falls.
Anything set after the events of Revenge of the Sith would seemingly require the voice talents of James Earl Jones, or somebody who could manage a good impression, to play the Darth Vader version of the character. The premise of The Bad Batch seems more suited to a show set after the prequel trilogy era but well before the beginning of Star Wars Rebels. At the same time, Rebels proved that there are always ways for Matt Lanter to return to the character even in projects set in the Vader era.
Whether or not Matt Lanter's Anakin turns up in The Bad Batch, I think it's safe to say that Star Wars isn't going to be done with animation after premiering the series that is going to feature a whole lot of Dee Bradley Baker. Plus, Lanter himself mentioned the possibility of voicing Anakin for a video game, so we shouldn't count that out as at least one way that he could return to his Star Wars character. There are always going to be more Star Wars projects!
For now, you can revisit Matt Lanter's earlier days as Anakin Skywalker with the full run of Star Wars: The Clone Wars streaming on Disney+, as well as Lanter's episodes of Star Wars Rebels, and even Star Wars Forces of Destiny. As for Star Wars: The Bad Batch, the next Star Wars TV show will premiere on Disney+ (with or without Lanter) on May 4, a.k.a. May the Fourth, or Star Wars Day.
