Hayden Christensen Was Almost in The Force Awakens

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So… The Force Awakens was a pretty good movie, all things considered. We had some impressions fresh out of seeing the movie that really don’t seem to have changed all that much since that initial viewing. I, personally, have seen the movie three times since release day and overall really enjoyed it (though I like to say that my first viewing was purely fan excitement while the later two allowed me to watch from a more critical standpoint). Regardless of your more specific opinions on it, TFA is just a fun movie from start to finish.

And while rumors originally swirled that Hayden Christensen was going to reprise his role as the doomed Anakin Skywalker in The Force Awakens, no one really seemed to let that theory take root. Little did we know how close that rumor came to reality.

According to the book Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, early concept art revealed that Anakin was potentially going to appear as a Force ghost somewhere in the film–but whether that ghost would have been Anakin or Vader is somewhat of a mystery now. And would Anakin’s ghost have appeared to Rey, perhaps, or Kylo Ren, or maybe even Luke?

In some of the concept art below, there are some iterations of potential Anakin ghosts–one that looks to be full Vader, and one that’s more of an Anakin/Vader hybrid.

anakinforceawakens

It would have been interesting to see an interaction between Kylo Ren and the ghost of Darth Vader, but it’s also difficult to envision where they could have placed such a scene within the film (perhaps a ghost talk instead of a one-sided conversation with a helmet?).

What are your thoughts on this reveal? Do you think the appearance of ghost-Hayden would have helped or hurt the film?

(via Screencrush, image via Lucasfilm)

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