After working together on “Attack of The Clones” and “Revenge of The Sith” and a 17-year gap since they last worked together, Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen are poised to finally reunite in the latest live-action “Star Wars” series, “Obi-Wan Kenobi” on Disney+.
The new six-episode long limited series see Christensen returning to the Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader role as his “Inquisitor” Jedi hunters from “Star Wars: Rebels” attempt to hunt and kill the remaining Jedi that have survived Order 66. Of course, one of the remaining Jedis of this era is Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor), quietly living on Tattoine, looking over a young Luke Skywalker from a distance.
However, one central element of the “Star Wars” galaxy might be changing. When speaking with Total Film to promote the upcoming series, Christensen said “no comment” when asked if James Earl Jones, the iconic voice of the Sith Lord Darth Vader, would be returning for “Kenobi.”
While Jones reprised his voice in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” and is still a working actor, it seems strange that Christensen couldn’t simply confirm his participation again. But his evasive answer suggests that Lucasfilm could continue to head in a controversial direction. For example, Mark Hamill did not reprise his voice as Luke Skywalker on either “The Mandalorian” or “The Book Of Boba Fett.” Instead, the company used a highly advanced voice synthesizer called Respeecher instead. Sometimes, this is done for practical purposes when an actor is unavailable. But the practice also keeps the actor out of the loop and presumably circumvents paying them as much (details of how that works are clearly unknown). Still, ethically, it does seem something of a troubling grey area, and it could mean they’re using the same approach for Darth Vader moving forward.
Regardless, Christensen expressed his excitement to explore the Darth Vader character, something he didn’t really get a chance to do with the prequels.
“He gets knighted as Darth Vader towards the end, and for a couple of scenes, I get to put the suit on. But my journey with the character was with Anakin Skywalker. But the character? He’s such a complex character. And now, getting to explore the mindset and the emotional state of Darth Vader has been a lot of fun.”
While he didn’t directly confirm his rumored involvement with Rosario Dawson‘s “Ahsoka” series, which is the next show to go into production in California, Christensen seems keen on reprising Darth Vader in the future.
“The extent of this journey, I think, remains to be seen,” Christensen says of his “Star Wars” future. “But what a privilege to get to come back and do this and to be a part of this project.”
Currently, it’s unknown if Christensen will just play Darth Vader or if Anakin Skywalker will appear “Clone Wars” era via flashbacks, using the same digital technology to bring back Mark Hamill’s younger Luke Skywalker. Could Lucasfilm want to do more with Christensen’s Darth Vader? It’s certainly possible if they attempt to return to the ‘Rebels’ era, trying to continue the “Kenobi” timeline with a spinoff, or keep filling in gaps from the Skywalker Saga.