With Obi-Wan Kenobi coming in hot, arriving on Disney Plus on 27th May with two episodes, the focus turns to the prime villain of the piece, Darth Vader. As he did at the very end of Revenge of the Sith, Hayden Christensen is under the helmet, and speaking with Total Film he explained that the fighting style is very much in line with what we saw in the prequel trilogy.
“Is Darth’s fighting style more in line with the prequels or the slower dancing in the sequels? We’re more in line with the prequels than we are with how the fights are in the original trilogy. These characters have aged, but not that much yet.”
Expanding further, Christensen explained just how much the prequels meant to him, and how sorry he was that the journey – for a time – ended.
“The experience of making the prequels was phenomenal. I mean, getting to work with George Lucas, and getting to play this character, I couldn’t have dreamed it up any better. I didn’t want it to end. It was a sad thing when it concluded. At the time, I thought that was that. I thought George had told his story, and my journey with the character was complete. After all of these years, to get to come back and to continue my journey is extremely meaningful to me.”
“He is 100% a fully realised Vader… He’s a very complex character, and there’s an inherent struggle of identity that is always present – there’s inner conflict. He’s always going to be struggling with the loss of Padmé.
He’s got Anakin buried deep down inside. There always has to be that element of Anakin there, because he does eventually find redemption in the end – through the love of his son, no less. So there has to be that bit of him in there for Luke to be able to access. There’s a lot going on.”
“Most of my work on this project was in preparation. The physical preparation was intense. I had to put on a decent amount of weight and size to fill up the suit.”
