He was the disembodied voice of Anakin Skywalker in The Rise of Skywalker, a guest at Star Wars Celebration Chicago last year and now LRM are claiming that sources have shared with them that Hayden is returning to the franchise in the forthcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series.
The biggest news from my source is Hayden is casted as a regular so that means we will be seeing Anakin in more than just a cameo appearance. During early parts of negotiations the role started out as just a cameo appearance. But the growing love of the prequel trilogy and the popularity of The Clone Wars, the role of Anakin has become a bigger part of the Kenobi storyline. There have been multiple theories of how Anakin would be coming back in the Kenobi series, since at the current timeline of the story he is currently Darth Vader. While the overall consensus is that we would see Anakin in some sort of dream sequence that Obi-Wan would have we could also see Anakin in Kenobi’s trials to learn how to become a Force Ghost.
There’s no more substance to the rumour than what is presented here, so it may turn out to be no more than that, a rumour, but the thought of working Hayden and Anakin into the Kenobi series opens up some fascinating opportunities. Would he be shown in flashback scenes, given that Hayden barely looks any older in 2020 than he did in 2003 when he filmed Revenge of the Sith, or could we be about to see Darth Vader sans helmet in his meditation chamber as we did in Empire, or being rejuvenated as we briefly saw in Rogue One?
Again, this may pan out into nothing – and until Lucasfilm give confirmation then it’s no more than fannish wish fulfilment – but just imagine the dramatic opportunities bringing Hayden back to the franchise, and to Obi-Wan this would present.
We’ll be chatting about this and much more on the next episode of Making Tracks, out next Tuesday.
