Hayden Christensen is returning to the Star Wars universe in Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi series, and after a complicated history with the franchise and its fandom, fans are now excited for Christensen’s return. Although the Skywalker saga has now come to an end with Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, the franchise will continue expanding with new content, some of them completely separate from the Skywalker storyline and others connected to it.
Disney has a lot of content planned for the Star Wars universe, including new movies, but it will focus more on TV shows, both live-action and animated. Among those is a series focused on legendary Jedi Obi-Wan Kenobi, with Ewan McGregor reprising his role. The series will be set 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith and will reunite McGregor with his co-star from the Star Wars prequels, Hayden Christensen, who played Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. The prequels opened many doors in Christensen’s career, but at the same time, they held him back, as the movies and his performance were heavily criticized.
After the Star Wars prequels, Christensen appeared in various projects, most notably Factory Girl, Awake, Jumper, and Takers, but he didn’t leave the Star Wars universe completely, with his voice being used in video games, TV shows, and specials, and his most recent “appearance” in the saga was a voice cameo in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker as one of the voices of past Jedi. For his work in the prequels, Christensen received a lot of criticism as a result of bad scripts, bad direction, and his “unpolished” acting skills, and as the prequels were the final movies in the Star Wars saga for many years, fans were upset they didn’t live up to the originals, directing their hate towards Christensen. But time heals most wounds, and after the arrival of the sequel trilogy, fans now look at Christensen’s time in the Star Wars universe with less resentment and are now welcoming him back.
In addition to that, Star Wars fans are excited about Hayden Christensen’s return in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series because he will return as Darth Vader, not Anakin Skywalker. As mentioned above, the series is set 10 years after Revenge of the Sith, meaning that Darth Vader is already spreading fear across the galaxy. Among the many mistakes the sequels made was leave Darth Vader and his legacy behind, made worse by how Disney teased Vader as an important piece in the sequels’ storyline. As a result, fans are excited to see Darth Vader return, more so next to McGregor’s Kenobi, and they are curious to see how the Sith lord’s return will fit into the canon timeline as it risks breaking it due to the Vader/Kenobi interaction in Star Wars: A New Hope.
Hayden Christensen’s return to the Star Wars franchise in a post-sequels time, and especially as Darth Vader, could redeem him to an extent in the eyes of Star Wars fans, who have had plenty of time to reevaluate the prequels and Christensen’s work in them. Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series will give Christensen a new chance to win the hearts of Star Wars fans again, and thanks to the success of The Mandalorian, which has somewhat made up for the sequels’ mess and given fans the type of stories, characters, and adventures they would expect from the franchise, fans are looking forward to what the Obi-Wan Kenobi series will bring and how Darth Vader will come into play.