Obi-Wan Kenobi star Hayden Christensen recently shared his thoughts on the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy.
Christensen gave The Force Awakens, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker the thumbs up in an interview with Kakuchopurei. "I really enjoyed the Sequel Trilogy," he said. "I think it was great the way that they honored this character. I really enjoyed sort of everything they’ve been up to with and it was fun for me to just go back to being a fan, and watch these stories like everybody else."
Although the Star Wars sequel trilogy was a massive commercial success, The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker continue to prove divisive among the saga's fanbase. This is something Christensen can likely relate to, given the critical backlash to the prequel trilogy he starred in. "When the [prequels] came out and the critics were very critical, of course that was a difficult thing -- because you care so much about this thing that you've invested so much of yourself into," he said, of the response to Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. "So, for sure, that's challenging."
Despite the negative reaction to his prior Star Wars work, Christensen has mentioned how excited he was to reprise the role of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi. "It was mostly a lot of excitement because I had spent enough time with this character and felt like I knew him, and coming back to it felt very natural in a lot of ways," he said. "And I was just really excited to get to come in and play Darth Vader at this point in the timeline because it did feel like a natural continuation of your journey with the character. And that was very meaningful for me."
Obi-Wan Kenobi's cast and crew were apparently just as excited to see Christensen return, with the Canadian actor even overshadowing star Ewan McGregor on his first day of filming. "It's really intense to have such an iconic character, and then to be directing him and to be doing new scenes with him," director Deborah Chow recalled. "So I do remember poor Ewan on that day, he's like, 'What am I, chopped liver by comparison right now?'"
Christensen recently spoke about the intense physical preparation required to transform him into Darth Vader, and an image of him brushing up on his lightsaber choreography was featured in the show's latest marketing push. Despite this, the star previously revealed that his Obi-Wan Kenobi prep included a lot of screen time, too. "I went back and rewatched all the films, and I also got into the animated shows, The Clone Wars and Rebels," Christensen said.
The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi arrive on Disney+ on May 27.
Source: Kakuchopurei