-6

As many of you may know, Luke Skywalker has long, wavy golden blond hair (just like me). But as others of you may know, his parents, Padme and Anakin, both had darker brown hair. So how did Luke get his luscious locks? Did Anakin cheat on Padme? Did someone mix the real Luke with a blond boy on the way to Tatooine? Or was this just a mystery with the answer hidden in the depths of the Unknown Regions?

Dosco Jones
  • 14,928
  • 3
  • 69
  • 97
Stainless-Steel
  • 89
  • 1
  • 4
  • 9
    Luke's hair looks blond in some shots and brown in others. Anakin's hair looked blond when he was a boy, but brown when he was a young man. I figure they both had dirty blond hair, which would account for their hair looking either blond or brown, depending on the lighting. Not to mention recessive/dominant alleles and the possibility of genetic mutations, which make it entirely possible for a child to have different coloured hair than either of their parents. – LogicDictates Nov 08 '21 at 21:33
  • 80
    "Did Anakin cheat on Padme?" - Erm, I'm not sure how you think genetics work, but this isn't it. – Valorum Nov 08 '21 at 21:36
  • 4
    When a Sith Lord loves a woman very much, he takes her to another planet and makes an awkward pass at her and then... uhm... she confesses it back right before they think they'll die and, somewhere you get babies. If you need details, go ask your mother. Or George Lucas. – Machavity Nov 09 '21 at 17:05
  • My dad was born with golden hair, but anyone who knew him as an adult would know he had dark brown hair. My mom had black hair, but one of my brothers also had golden hair when he was young, but his hair is also dark brown now. Hair color is weird. – Quasi_Stomach Nov 09 '21 at 18:35
  • When I was young I had brown hair. It is now blond. OK, platinum blond but still... – Jon Custer Nov 09 '21 at 19:40
  • @Valorum "Did Anakin cheat on Padme?" - Padme getting pregnant doesn't work that way either. – rtaft Nov 09 '21 at 19:58
  • When has Hollywood ever cared about genetics when casting? – rtaft Nov 09 '21 at 19:59
  • @rtaft - Padmé got pregnant in much the usual way (e.g. when a Jedi loves a Senator, they do a special hug). I think you might be thinking of Anakin's mum, who immaculately conceived. – Valorum Nov 09 '21 at 20:02
  • @Valorum. Luke came out of Padme, Anakin cheating would have no effect on Luke or his genetics. – rtaft Nov 09 '21 at 21:38
  • @rtaft - Yes. That is the joke that I was making. – Valorum Nov 09 '21 at 21:46
  • Hair and eyes colors are more often than not inherited from grandparents. – AcePL Nov 10 '21 at 15:27
  • In Star Wars universe hair color is paternal recessive gene, so Luke got his blonde hair from Anakin’s father. – Silly but True Nov 18 '21 at 03:15

2 Answers2

40

This is simply how genetics works in the real world. There is no other explanation needed.

See: What Color Hair Will My Baby Have? (A Guide to Hair Color Genetics)

(from the article) Hair chart

"Brunettes Can Give Birth To Blondes (Single Recessive Genes)"

Pete
  • 16,827
  • 4
  • 54
  • 84
  • 1
    Notably, Luke's parents are Anakin (blond hair) and Padme, whose entire family seem to have dark brown hair. – Valorum Nov 08 '21 at 21:52
  • 3
    What indication is there that human genetics of the “real world” are the same for alien humans of the GFFA, or particularly for the genetic line of a child who had no father in any case, if the mother is to be believed? – Silly but True Nov 08 '21 at 23:09
  • 20
    Oooh, look at all the cute tribbles! – Invisible Trihedron Nov 09 '21 at 00:06
  • 13
    @Silly_But_True, the humans in the Star Wars universe have a comparable biology to contemporary Earth humans. We should assume similarity unless there is a canonical reason not to. Besides, that isn't just how human hair colour works, it's how genetics works. It works that way for any inherited trait in any species that reproduces sexually. Early experiments were on inherited smooth or wrinkled skin in beans, which works the same way. – Pete Nov 09 '21 at 00:32
  • 4
    The text say "single recessive genes", but I was taught (although long ago, and it was highschool biology), that major Rh blood types can be explained by single recessive genes, but hair and eye colors are multi-gene factored, so any combination is possible and the probability calculations are impressivily complex. – D. Kovács Nov 09 '21 at 08:13
  • 1
    @SillybutTrue There was almost an expanded universe novel that would've explained Star Wars humans as descendants of us Earth humans through time-travel shenanigans. – Izkata Nov 09 '21 at 15:27
  • @D.Kovács I have no idea to what extent that is actually true (i..e how complex it actually is), but I do know that high school biology teachers like to big up the level of complexity in order to avoid sparking conversations in the class along the lines of "But Sir/Miss, that can't be true because my Mum and Dad both have blue eyes and I have brown eyes"... supposedly 1 in 10 people are incorrect about who their father actually is. – Vicky Nov 09 '21 at 17:28
  • 2
    @D.Kovács There are multiple genes involved, but the overall effect is usually not too far off from how a ternary single-gene trait is inherited. – Austin Hemmelgarn Nov 09 '21 at 18:03
  • Odd that the chart seems to contradict what I've always thought, and indeed what they say in their own article: "If both parents are blonde, they will certainly have a blonde child." I always thought that red hair was the same, but at least they give an explanation for that which matches their chart. – Jason Goemaat Nov 09 '21 at 18:07
  • @Vicky yeah, we had an awkward silence in class, when somebody asked, how can he be AB+ if his dad is 0-... – D. Kovács Nov 10 '21 at 06:50
25

Anakin Skywalker,

Luke's father,

has blond hair when he was younger

enter image description here

Which progressively darkens the more time he spends away from the twin suns of Tatooine.

enter image description here

Much the same as Luke's.

Before
enter image description here

After
enter image description here

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
  • 5
    Those are two photos of Jake Lloyd at the same age, is there reason to think they intentionally made his hair look darker in the second one or is it just that he had darker roots that became more visible when they gave him a haircut? In the latter case there's no reason to think this had any in-universe explanation like the idea that his hair "progressively darkens the more time he spends away from the twin suns of Tatooine", unless there was some book or other source that actually stated this. – Hypnosifl Nov 08 '21 at 21:56
  • 1
    Likewise with Luke, unless we know they intentionally changed the lightness of his hair for in-universe reasons, the difference is probably mostly a matter of Mark Hamill's hair looking different when shot in natural sunlight vs. indoor lighting (his hair still looked pretty light aboard the Sail Barge in Jedi for example), and there could have been some actual darkening with age. – Hypnosifl Nov 08 '21 at 21:58
  • 8
    It's worth noting that this phenomenon happens to most blonds in reality here on Earth too. People who are born even very light blond more often than not get progressively darker hair as they mature (at least until they get old enough that it starts turning grey or white). – Darrel Hoffman Nov 09 '21 at 14:42
  • 3
    "Which progressively darkens the more time he spends away from the twin suns of Tatooine." This seems to be an important factor. My own hair ranges from light brown/dark blond at the end of winter, to a light sun-bleached blond if I get to spend lots of time at the lake in the summer. (FWIW, both parents had nearly black hair.) – jamesqf Nov 09 '21 at 16:32