Entertainment
Hayden Christensen to return as Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi series
Christensen will play opposite his former Star Wars prequel co-star Ewan McGregor, who’s reprising his role as the titular character for Disney Plus.
After being announced last year at D23, Disney’s biennial fan convention, Star Wars superfans have been waiting with baited breath to hear more details of what the ambitious Obi-Wan Kenobi series will have in store. Finally today a tantalising new tidbit came to light.
It was announced during the Disney Investor Day presentation on Thursday, 10 December that Hayden Christensen will be returning to play Darth Vader alongside Ewan McGregor as Kenobi.
Star Wars also tweeted the exciting news from their official twitter account: “Hayden Christensen returns as Darth Vader, joining Ewan McGregor in OBI-WAN KENOBI. The Original Series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith, and is coming to #DisneyPlus.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi series: the story so far (far away)
Christensen starred as Anakin Skywalker in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, portraying the character's turn to the dark side and ultimately becoming Darth Vader. In this new series, Christensen's character will be a more developed version of Darth Vader and he will once again run into his former master.
Obi-Wan Kenobi will be set 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith, which ended with Obi-Wan defeating Anakin, as Luke and Leia went into hiding.
In the new series, Anakin Skywalker has already become Darth Vader and Obi-Wan is still trying to recover from his greatest defeat.
The Brag speculates that Kenobi will supposedly be chilling around Tatooine, biding his time and some sort of meeting will bring him back to his old adversary. Exact details are still shrouded in mystery about the new show.
It will apparently take place in the same time period as the new Cassian Andor show, Andor, between the fall of the Republic and the start of A New Hope.
Obi-Wan Kenobi series: filming, release details
No other cast announcements have been made yet, but Deborah Chow, who directed episodes of the first season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, will be at the helm of the limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Filming is due to start on 4 January 2021, according to the Film and Television Industry Alliance (FTIA). The series is due to be filmed mostly in Boston, USA and London, UK. There is no estimated release date but it will eventually air on Disney Plus and likely not until 2022.
A summary of the series also included on the FTIA website reads “Tatooine—a harsh desert world where farmers toil in the heat of two suns while trying to protect themselves and their loved ones from the marauding Tusken Raiders. A backwater planet on the edge of civilized space. And an unlikely place to find a Jedi Master in hiding, or an orphaned infant boy on whose tiny shoulders rests the future of a galaxy”.
It’s unsurprising that Kathleen Kennedy, head of Lucasfilm, is rushing through so many spin-offs after the colossal success of The Mandalorian‘s first two seasons.
In 30 October 2020 the Season 2 premiere of The Mandalorian drew 1.04 million households, according to SambaTV data provided to Observer. That marks an increase of 73% compared to the show’s Season 1 premiere in November 2019.