In current Star Wars canon, Anakin Skywalker has no biological father ; he was conceived by the Force itself, with Shmi Skywalker as his only confirmed parent.

Canon answer

  • In The Phantom Menace , Shmi tells Qui‑Gon Jinn that there was no father and that she simply became pregnant.
  • Many official reference guides and fan discussions summarize this as Anakin being a “virgin birth” created by the will of the Force, fulfilling the Chosen One prophecy.

So, if you’re asking “who was Anakin’s father?” in a straightforward, canon sense, the answer is: no one – he was created by the Force.

Popular fan theories

Fans have debated this for years and several big theories keep coming up:

  1. The Force itself (pure prophecy view)
    • The idea: Anakin is a direct manifestation of the Force, like a miracle birth.
 * This keeps the story mythic and spiritual, echoing religious and hero‑myth traditions.
  1. Darth Plagueis as his “father”
    • Some fans point to the Revenge of the Sith tale about Darth Plagueis learning to create life with the Force and speculate he engineered Anakin’s conception.
 * This would make Anakin a Sith experiment gone cosmic.
  1. Palpatine (Sheev) as his “father”
    • Another large fan theory is that Palpatine used Plagueis’ techniques to create Anakin, making Anakin literally the Emperor’s creation.
 * This would underline how tightly Palpatine is woven into Anakin’s fate.

None of these theories has been definitively confirmed in on‑screen canon; they’re interpretations fans layer on top of the core “no father” explanation.

How fans talk about it on forums

If you look at recent forum and Reddit threads, you’ll see three main viewpoints:

  • “Biologically no father, end of story ” – these fans stick to Shmi’s statement and the mystical Chosen One angle.
  • “Plagueis or Palpatine did it ” – lore‑diggers connect Plagueis’ life‑creating powers and Palpatine’s story in Revenge of the Sith to argue one of them meddled with the Force to make Anakin.
  • “Lucas left it ambiguous on purpose ” – some commenters emphasize that George Lucas intentionally kept the origin somewhat open for symbolic interpretation rather than hard sci‑fi detail.

A typical way fans phrase it is:

“Canonically, Anakin has no father; fan‑wise, his father is either the Force, Plagueis, or Palpatine depending on which theory you prefer.”

TL;DR

  • Official canon : Anakin has no biological father; he was conceived by the Force, with Shmi as his only confirmed parent.
  • Fan theories : Many fans argue for Darth Plagueis or Palpatine as a behind‑the‑scenes “father,” but this has not been conclusively confirmed on screen.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.