When Star Wars first hit movie theaters in 1977, it was an unexpected hit. What was more surprising than that was the empire of films, TV series, comic books, novels, video games and more that continues to endure to this day. But it all started on a desert planet in the Outer Rim of the galaxy called Tatooine, which might be a lot more important than it first seemed.
Tatooine is about as desolate a planet as it gets. According to the canonical book, Ultimate Star Wars, it was covered in lush greenery at one point in the distant past but an unknown cataclysm reduced it to the desert wasteland fans know and love. Calling it sparsely populated is a huge understatement, as there are only about 200,000 sentient lifeforms on the planet. And that's counting both Tusken Raiders and Jawas.
Ultimately, there's nothing particularly interesting about Tatooine. It's a Outer Rim dust ball orbiting two stars that has been stripped of most major resources by mining companies who have long since abandoned the world. The only value it briefly held was as a throne world for Jabba the Hutt's vast criminal empire, one that Boba Fett appears to be taking over now that he's crawled out of the Sarlacc pit.
Keeping all of that in mind, Tatooine has found itself to be a key player in many galactic events. Anakin Skywalker was born there. He also met his future wife and the mother of Luke and Leia on Tatooine. Luke was taken back there by Obi-Wan Kenobi to hide. Obi-Wan finally killed Maul on this world. And the whole Skywalker saga came to an end at Uncle Owen's moisture farm when Rey buried Luke and Leia's lightsabers there.
These are only some of the major events surrounding this world in the current Star Wars canon. In the Legends, it comes up even more frequently in the lives of other Jedi such as Jaden Korr, Anakin Solo, Tahiri Vela and more. But that begs the question of why this non descript planet keeps coming back up in Star Wars. The answer could be related to Force nexuses that appear on other planets.
Throughout the Jedi mythology, there are different planets in the galaxy that are home to key waypoints, where ley lines of Force energy converge and form a nexus. The Jedi Temple on Lothal was established on such a nexus. Another Outer Rim world, Lothal was largely ignored by history until the rise of the Galactic Empire. Emperor Palpatine was secretly interested in the world because of the forgotten nexus on it.
Because of this power, Lothal had a variety of unique creatures such as the highly Force sensitive Loth-Wolves. The planet also produced an incredibly powerful Jedi named Ezra Bridger. This was similar to Tatooine in that both worlds were sparsely populated and well removed from the larger issues of the rest of the galaxy. Yet, they both somehow produced Jedi who changed the direction of history.
The similarities between Lothal and Tatooine may go even further than that. It is entirely possible that there is a Force nexus on Tatooine, as well. The Lothal Temple and nexus were forgotten by most. The same thing could have happened on Tatooine: a Jedi Temple might've been established on the Force nexus but was forgotten over time. Given the lack of sentient life on the planet, it would be really easy to lose a temple there. Even if a Jedi Temple has never been established, it could simply be that the Force nexus there has yet to be discovered.
A Force nexus on Tatooine could explain why a backwater criminal stronghold with little to offer the galaxy keeps getting drawn into prominence. There is more to Tatooine than meets the eye. With various upcoming Disney+ series on the horizon as well as the inevitable spinoffs in other media, there's a real chance that Tatooine's secret history might finally be explored.