Star Wars rumor: Hayden Christensen to return as Anakin in Obi-Wan Kenobi show?

I know we shouldn’t indulge in rumors…but it’s so much fun. Here’s a good one about Disney’s upcoming Star Wars show about Obi-Wan Kenobi.

There’s nothing like a good rumor, is there? And the more it sounds like it could be true, the better it is. LRM has a juicy one for us today: according to a “source,” Hayden Christensen will be reprising the role of Anakin Skywalker in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+.

Christensen famously played the man who would become Darth Vader in the Star Wars prequel trilogy. At the time, his performance was torn apart by fans who thought he was wooden and uncharismatic, especially in his romantic scenes with Natalie Portman, who played Padmé Amidala. And yeah, it’s pretty difficult to make lines like this sound convincing:

But more recently, people seem to be coming around to the prequel series, maybe because the kids who grew up on them have come of age, maybe because the backlash is now focused on the more recent Star Wars sequels, or whatever. According to LRM, the original plan was to give Anakin a cameo appearance in the Disney+ show, which will feature Ewan McGregor returning to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi as we see what he was up to between the prequel movies and the original trilogy. But the rehabilitation of the prequels, together with Anakin’s popularity in Star Wars: The Clone Wars, has convinced them to give Christensen “a bigger role.”

The next question is: how would he make an appearance? At the time of the Obi-Wan show, Anakin is off being Darth Vader, wheezing through his trademark mask and speaking in the voice of James Earl Jones. Maybe we’ll see Vader take off his mask and chill every once in a while? Or he could appear in a dream sequence or a flashback.

But for now, it’s all rumor. The last time we checked in with the Obi-Wan show, Disney was scrapping some of the scripts they had for the series and going back to the drawing board. Maybe Anakin’s role is part of the new direction? For what it’s worth, there’s also a rumor that Jar Jar Binks will appear in the show, but we have a while to wait before we find out if any of this is true.

In the meantime, we have something slightly better than rumor: unused concept art from Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Apparently, at one point they were considering giving us a double-decker Star Destroyer:

Such luxury.

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