Star Wars fans might have found a prequels plot hole that involves Anakin Skywalker and Order 66.
Now, Order 66 is the command given to the clone army by Emperor Palpatine to wipe out all of the Jedi. As one fan points out on Reddit, in The Clone Wars finale, it’s shown that the clones try and kill Ahsoka Tano even though she’s no longer a Jedi. Considering Anakin was dressed as a Jedi – even though he’d fallen to the dark side and become a Sith by the time of the command – then “surely Anakin should have been killed along with the rest of the Jedi.”
“I saw a breakdown that showed the Clone Wars episode when Tup’s chip broke. Tup looked right past Anakin to the other Jedi. Maybe Palps worked in an immunity thing for Anakin,” speculates one fan.
“Well, we don’t 100% know that only one message was sent. The 501st could have received a special order not to kill him,” points out someone else.
“He was no longer a Jedi, he was the second highest rank in the new Empire at that time,” argues another fan.
“He literally leads them in and is shown in contact with Palpatine after killing everyone so they probably just have different orders. He’s a powerful Jedi, it’s possible he killed some along with the Jedi,” is another person’s thoughts.
The most likely answer seems to be that Anakin had built in immunity from Order 66 thanks to Palpatine, but there’s no concrete answer given in canon – so far, anyway.
Next up for Star Wars is Andor season 2, which releases this April 22. In the meantime, check out our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows for everything else that’s in store.
