For many millennials, this is a long time coming. During the release of the prequels, fans were gifted with the portrayal of Anakin Skywalker by Hayden Christensen in both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. For some reason, people were incredibly mean about his performance despite the fact that he was very good as Anakin. We knew, the millennials who got it got it, and now it feels like sweet sweet victory having Hayden Christensen back in Star Wars.
With Christensen playing Darth Vader to Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, the return is 17 years in the marking and a big one for fans and the actors alike. We got new images from the show and a new teaser trailer earlier this week, but now, we have a look at Christensen’s return! In a brand new look at Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi from Entertainment Weekly, Christensen gave away very little about the upcoming series, but he did give a little tease about what we can expect for his role.
The question on everyone’s lips, though, is “Are we going to see Hayden Christensen outside of the Vader suit?”
“I wish I could tell you,” Christensen told EW, barely giving us a clue. “I’m sworn to secrecy.” So will we see Hayden Christensen’s face at all? Or is he just going to be in the Vader helmet the entire time and sounding like James Earl Jones? I have some questions about the logistics here.
The return of Vader
While we’ve seen Vader pop up in things like animated series and briefly in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, this is the first time that he’s back in live-action in a longer format. Christensen also promised a stronger Vader this time around. “We’re going to see a very powerful Vader,” he said, and given the versions of Vader that we have seen in the past, that’s saying something.
It’s unclear just how much of Vader we’ll actually get in this series, but the small teases we’re getting at least leave the door open for substantial involvement. “His shadow is cast across so much of what we do,” series writer Joby Harold said to EW about Vader. “And the degree of his proximity to that shadow is something that we’ll discover. But he is very much a part of the show emotionally for Obi-Wan, and possibly beyond that, as well.”
I will say this: I am not a Vader girl. I am an Anakin girl, and I understand how he became Vader and the struggles there in his character, but I am incredibly excited to see how the show explores the growth of the Anakin we saw in Revenge of the Sith to the Vader that will be looming over Obi-Wan Kenobi throughout this series.
While I do still want to know if we’ll have flashbacks or Vader without the mask on to sort of make sense of all of this (because why would Hayden Christensen be back in the suit when it’s not even his voice as Vader?), I’m willing to wait it all out and see what the team behind Obi-Wan Kenobi has in store for us.
(image: Lucasfilm)
