Hayden Christensen Returning to ‘Star Wars’ in Disney+ ‘Kenobi’ Series

It’s the rematch that audiences didn’t know they wanted, but Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi will get another chance to deal with Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker in Disney+’s Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series. On Thursday, Disney announced Christensen would return to play Darth Vader in the project.

The two actors were co-leads in 2002’s Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, with Christensen’s Skywalker the Padawan being trained as a Jedi by McGregor’s Kenobi. Their duel in Revenge of the Sith, amid the volcanic lava of the planet Mustafar, was the climactic event that led to Skywalker’s transformation into the franchise’s central villain, Darth Vader.

It’s unknown as yet who will provide the voice of Vader in Kenobi, set a decade after Revenge of the Sith. James Earl Jones once again lent his voice to Vader in that film.

In footage screened exclusively for investors as part of The Walt Disney Co. investor day event, director Deborah Chow explained that the miniseries starts from a simple premise: “Just being a Jedi, it’s not safe.”

The preview footage — all interview, with the project not in production until next year — featured McGregor saying, “The most beautiful thing of all [about the series] is that it’s brought me back together with Hayden,” and adding that the two will have “another swing at each other” before the end of the series.

Lucasfilm boss Kathleen Kennedy called it “the rematch of the century.”

Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi will debut on Disney+ 2022.

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