Who Originally Owned Anakin Skywalker As A Slave?

As expansive and filled with beauty as the «Star Wars» universe is, it’s also riddled with its own systemic problems and horrors. One such example is, obviously, how slavery was able to prosper on planets like Tatooine, the birthplace of Anakin Skywalker. In «The Phantom Menace,» Watto, who is voiced by Andy Secombe, is seen as a junk dealer. Cruel and eager to make a quick buck, Watto owns Anakin and Shmi Skywalker (Pernilla August), the former’s mother. 

Watto owns Anakin and his mother after a podracing bet from their previous owner. Ultimately, that’s also how Anakin is «freed.» In «The Phantom Menace,» Quin Gon-Jinn (Neeson) bets the junk dealer that Anakin can win a pod race. The young Skywalker proves his abilities, and Anakin is freed from Watto’s claws, though he has to say goodbye to his mother, who is still enslaved. Watto later returns in the sequel, «Attack of the Clones,» where his modest empire of second-hand goods is reduced to rubbish, with Shmi no longer in his servitude. 

While Watto isn’t a prominent character in the «Star Wars» universe, he’s largely responsible for setting Anakin (later played by Hayden Christensen) on a path of vengeance and revenge. As the «Star Wars» universe continues to expand, will audiences ever see Watto again? That’s anyone’s guess, though voice Andy Secombe does know what direction he’d want to take the junk trader in. «I think he has set up some kind of small-scale gambling den. Having lost everything, he’s now selling bits of scrap metal. He’s not the successful man he once was,» Secombe pondered in a 2006 interview.