Ewan McGregor Had A Perfect Reaction to Seeing Hayden Christensen As Darth Vader

Ewan McGregor revealed his reaction to see old co-star Hayden Christensen back in character as Darth Vader, and it's pretty great.

By Nathan Kamal | Published

This article is more than 2 years old

ewan mcgregor
STAR WARS EPISODE II: ATTACK OF THE CLONES, Ewan McGregor, 2002, Copyright 2002 Lucasfilm Ltd., courtesy Everett Collection

Ewan McGregor is returning to his destined role as Obi-Wan Kenobi, in case you have not checked out any kind of news for the last few months. Star Wars fans are both overjoyed and foaming at the mouth for the upcoming Disney+ limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi (and they are not an easy bunch to get excited), but he is not the only hotly anticipated return to the franchise. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, McGregor went into his reaction to seeing his old co-star Hayden Christensen back in action as his friend/nemesis Darth Vader. As you might expect, McGregor was pretty excited about it. He told EW:

To see Hayden back in the role of Anakin, well, it was sort of spine-tingling. It was amazing. It was just amazing to see Hayden, full stop…I’m so close with him, we’ve stayed in touch over the years, but we haven’t seen each other for a long time … We had this long catchup. It was so lovely. It just had been years since we actually saw each other. Not for any reason other than just locations … but I love him so much. We have a very special bond of making two of those first three films together.” 

Honestly, if Ewan McGregor is that jazzed to see Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader again, we are too. It is interesting to note that McGregor seemingly let it slip in the interview that he “didn’t see any age on [Christensen’s] face.” That could either mean that the star of Shattered Glass just has a really good skincare routine and looks great for his age, or that we might also be seeing Christensen as a pre-being burned alive and having most of his limbs severed version of the character. If that is the case, might we be getting some flashbacks in Obi-Wan Kenobi to the days of Anakin and Obi-Wan’s days fighting together in The Clone Wars? Or it could be that we see an unmasked, unscarred Anakin in a dream sequence or a Force vision of some kind. Or again, maybe it is nothing and Hayden Christensen just has a youthful glow about him. 

Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen) in Lucasfilm’s OBI-WAN KENOBI, exclusively on Disney+. © 2022 Lucasfilm Ltd. & ™. All Rights Reserved.

Obi-Wan Kenobi stars Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen as their characters from the prequel trilogy of Star Wars films, but they are also not the only ones returning. Legendary film composer John Williams has been confirmed to be returning to score the limited series, plus we already heard his iconic “Duel of the Fates” theme in the trailer. It remains concerningly unclear whether James Earl Jones will be returning to voice Darth Vader, as he has done in the vast majority of Star Wars properties. While the actor is 91 years old and may simply not want to reprise the role (that he filled as recently as 2016’s Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), it kind of feels not quite right to not have Jones around. 


Since originally leaving the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi behind with Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Ewan McGregor has starred in a wide variety of movies. He eventually made a sequel to his 1990s hit Trainspotting, and was the voice of Lumière the candlestick in the live-action remake of Beauty and the Beast. He is also slated to voice Sebastian J. Cricket (that’s Jiminy to you) in Guillermo del Toro’s upcoming version of Pinocchio that probably won’t be terrifying and weird. While this will be the return of Obi-Wan Kenobi as a live-action character, McGregor has done vocal cameos as the Jedi master in both The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker. Obi-Wan Kenobi is scheduled to stream on Disney+ starting May 25.

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