Star Wars: Hayden Christensen Reveals Why He Chose To Return As Darth Vader

Despite being 45 years old, the Star Wars franchise is still growing, and who would’ve thought back in 1977 that one simple idea in the head of George Lucas will bring to this. After 45 years, the franchise counts nine main movies, two spin-off movies, numerous other spin-offs and animated shows, two live-action Disney+ shows (with a third one and many more on the way), video games, merchandise… feel free to stop me at any time.

We all have our personal favorite Star Wars characters, but we can all agree that Darth Vader is one of the most known. Vader is the part of the Star Wars saga since the very beginning, and his background story was so intrigued that it took a whole prequel trilogy for George Lucas to tell it, culminating at the end of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, in which Anakin Skywalker, once a young Jedi Knight who was promising a lot, turned to the dark side and became Darth Vader, one of the most known villains in the popular culture.

Hayden Christensen played the role of young Anakin Skywalker in Episode II and Episode III after Jake Lloyd played the character in The Phantom Menace. But, Christensen’s portrayal of the character was heavily criticized, and he won two Golden Raspberry Awards for The Worst Supporting Actor in both movies in 2002 and 2005, respectively. After that, he never starred in some serious blockbusters, and it’s enough to say that none of his projects after Revenge of the Sith have more than a 6.5 rating on IMDb. And that also includes The Rise of Skywalker, in which he provided the voice of Anakin Skywalker for a split-second.

But, after Disney announced that Ewan McGregor will return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming Disney+ series, we can’t really have McGregor’s Obi-Wan without Christensen’s Anakin, so the announcement that Christensen will return as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in the series, and also in one more upcoming series — Ahsoka, in which Rosario Dawson plays the titular role. Christensen now opened up what happened in his career after the Revenge of the Sith and why he chose to return as Darth Vader.

“When the films came out and the critics were very critical, of course, that was a difficult thing – because you care so much about this thing that you’ve invested so much of yourself into. […] [Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow] came up and we spent the day chatting. She told me a little bit about the project and her vision for it, and I just thought that it sounded wonderful. I was very excited to come back.” — Hayden Christensen for Entertainment Weekly

Hayden Christensen will return as the Sith Lord Darth Vader in the upcoming Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, which is set to premiere on May 25, 2022. Christensen will also return in the upcoming series Ahsoka, which is currently in development and most likely won’t premiere before 2023.