Hayden Christensen rose to fame thanks to his portrayal of Anakin Skywalker in the Star Wars prequels, but what happened to him after Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith? After the unexpected success of Star Wars: A New Hope in 1977 and with two more films completing what is now known as the “original trilogy”, Lucasfilm decided to explore the events that took place before these films and thus the “prequel trilogy” was born.

Released between 1999 and 2005, the prequels explored Anakin Skywalker’s backstory, from his years as a slave in Tatooine to his rise as Sith lord Darth Vader. Jake Lloyd played nine-year old Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, with Hayden Christensen portraying an older Anakin in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Although this wasn’t Christensen’s first film role, it was the one that made his name known worldwide.

Related: Star Wars: Every Actor That Played Darth Vader

Prior to playing Anakin Skywalker, Christensen had minor roles in John Carpenter’s In the Mouth of Madness, the TV film No Greater Love, Street Law, the comedy All I Wanna Do, and Sofia Coppola’s The Virgin Suicides before starring in Life as a House, for which he was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actor. The Star Wars universe was new territory that ended up opening many doors in his career, so what has Hayden Christensen done since then?

What Has Hayden Christensen Done Since The Star Wars Prequels

American Heist Hayden Christensen

Hayden Christensen’s post-Star Wars life has had a bit of everything. In between Star Wars films, he starred in the biographical drama Shattered Glass as Stephen Glass, a young reporter at The New Republic who invented many of his published articles. Christensen’s first role after the prequels was another biographical drama: Factory Girl (2006), in which he played Billy Quinn, a character allegedly based on Bob Dylan. His next work was the thriller Awake (2007), where he played Clayton Beresford Jr, a young man who remains fully conscious during a heart transplant, and discovers that the surgery is slated to fail. That same year he starred alongside Mischa Barton in Virgin Territory, a romantic comedy based on Giovanni Boccaccio’s Decameron.

In 2008 he landed the lead role in Doug Liman’s sci-fi film Jumper, playing a young man who can teleport at will. The following year he starred in Jiang Wen’s segment in New York, I Love You, an anthology film that served as a sequel of sorts to the 2006 film Paris, Je t’aime. 2010 was a busy year for Christensen, as he played A.J. in the action crime thriller Takers, Luke Ryder in the post-apocalyptic thriller Vanishing on 7th Street, and voiced Jammer in Quantum Quest: A Cassini Space Odyssey. He extended his stay in the action genre with the 2014 films Outcast (alongside Nicolas Cage) and American Heist, and went back briefly to drama films in 2015 with 90 Minutes in Heaven. In 2017, he starred alongside Bruce Willis in the action thriller First Kill.

His most recent works are the action drama The Last Man and the romantic comedy Little Italy, directed by Donald Petrie (Mystic Pizza, Miss Congeniality). It’s unknown if Hayden Christensen has any projects lined up for the near future, but Star Wars fans are hoping to see him back somehow as Anakin Skywalker in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Unsurprisingly, there have been no details about his possible involvement in the final Star Wars film, but fans are not losing hope – and it would certainly be a big surprise.

Next: Why Star Wars 9 NEEDS Hayden Christensen To Rise As Skywalker Force Ghost

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