When Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace first hit theaters in 1999, Jake Lloyd became one of the first Star Wars actors to face the most toxic corner of the fan base. The movie as a whole was massively polarizing, with some fans praising Darth Maul and other fans decrying Jar Jar Binks. George Lucas’ return to a galaxy far, far away was a mixed bag, to say the least, and there were a lot of strong opinions flying around in the wake of its release. Lloyd’s performance as a nine-year-old Anakin Skywalker was one of the aspects that divided fans the most.
Contemporary Star Wars fans who weren’t quite sure what to make of The Phantom Menace (except that they hated it) were polarized by how sweet and innocent Lloyd played the kid who would be Vader. But this innocent characterization masterfully sets up Anakin’s inevitable fall to the dark side. The tragedy of Anakin Skywalker is that the Sith Lord he eventually becomes is so far removed from the bright-eyed Jedi prodigy he once was.
Audiences need to cut child actors some slack. No matter how talented they are, kids are just kids. The fact that Jake Lloyd could even remember all his lines and stay in character under the blistering heat of Hollywood-grade lights at such a young age is impressive enough. Few child actors are able to give strong enough performances that there’s no evidence of the artifice of acting at all, although it’s not impossible, as proven by Tatum O’Neal in Paper Moon, Quvenzhané Wallis in Beasts of the Southern Wild, and Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.
Lloyd’s performance in The Phantom Menace isn’t flawless, but considering his young age, he’s a surprisingly perceptive scene partner with seasoned actors like Liam Neeson and Samuel L. Jackson. He developed a tangible mother-son bond with Pernilla August that made Anakin’s departure from Tatooine suitably heartbreaking. Plus, Lloyd’s take on the role was perfect for that stage in Anakin’s life. His warm, likable characterization complements the tragedy of Anakin’s arc.
As the backstory of the Star Wars saga, the prequels promised to detail Darth Vader’s origins for fans who’d been pleasantly surprised by the revelation of his illegitimate children and his ultimate redemption in the initial trilogy. For some fans, the prequel trilogy didn’t start close enough to Vader’s turn to the dark side, as Anakin is introduced as an adorable nine-year-old kid with dreams of becoming a pilot and saving his mother from a life of slavery. But this just emphasized how far Anakin would fall from grace throughout the rest of the trilogy.
Since the audience goes in knowing how the story ends, prequels have the unique opportunity to use the inevitability of fate as a dramatic tool. The best prequels, like Better Call Saul, have leaned heavily into this element in crafting their characters’ arcs. The Star Wars prequels obviously aren’t perfect, but reintroducing Darth Vader as a cutesy little kid was a bold and unexpected way to set up his origin story. Moviegoers knew that, one day, this kid would become Darth Vader – the question was, how?
One of the most celebrated sequences in The Phantom Menace is the pod race. During the race, which is established to determine Anakin’s fate, he has to face sabotage by his rival Sebulba. While he’s driving a hovercraft at nearly 500mph, Anakin has to reconnect the engine to the main pod. Lloyd would’ve had to perform all these scenes in front of a greenscreen, but his acting in the face of CGI danger is believable enough that, even though the character is protected by plot armor, the tension is palpable throughout the set-piece.
Fans who were disappointed with Lloyd’s subversively wholesome portrayal of Anakin apparently would’ve been more satisfied if the character had begun the trilogy as a dark, brooding antihero on the verge of turning to the Sith. But Kylo Ren’s arc in the sequel trilogy proved that if that had happened, it wouldn’t have worked. This trilogy set out to tell the story of how Anakin became Vader. In order for this arc to work, Lloyd had to lay the groundwork with his performance as a young Anakin who isn’t so different than the Skywalker seen watching Tatooine’s twin suns set over the desert in the original 1977 movie.
The actor who succeeded Lloyd as Anakin, Hayden Christensen, was similarly vilified for his performance when the movies initially arrived in multiplexes. But, over time, Christensen’s portrayal of Anakin has been retroactively praised as fitting for the character and the overall saga. Fans have come to accept that Christensen did the best job he could with the awkward material Lucas gave him. Unfortunately, they haven’t extended the same gratitude to Lloyd and his work in The Phantom Menace remains overlooked.