Following the release of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith in 2005, Hayden Christensen only appeared in a handful of movies and struggled to shake off the huge shadow cast by Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader.
As the years went by, he started acting less and less, making his "comeback" in 2022's Obi-Wan Kenobi. Earlier this year, Christensen took on an even larger supporting role as Anakin in Ahsoka, receiving widespread critical acclaim and a huge amount of love from fans.
That wasn't really the case in the mid-2000s, but the tide has changed and he now seems to be mulling over a return to performing beyond just the Star Wars franchise.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Christensen has signed with Independent Artist Group for representation. IAG CEO Jim Osborne said in a statement, "Ed Limato and I signed Hayden Christensen early in his career and it’s wonderful to be reunited with my old friend."
Regina Hall, William H. Macy, John Cusack, Terrence Howard, Donnie Yen, and Martin Lawrence are among the talents who have signed with IAG this year, so Christensen finds himself in good - and very talented - company.
What comes next for him remains to be seen, though we're sure many of you will be excited at the prospect of Christensen taking on roles beyond just Anakin.
Recently, Ahsoka showrunner Dave Filoni talked about bringing the actor back to Star Wars and elaborated on what he brought to the table as the title character's mentor (a relationship the filmmaker first explored, sans Christensen, in The Clone Wars animated series).
"He had done a lot of watching and he’s talked about that, and we just discussed this isn’t really a story about Anakin, but it’s important how Ahsoka sees Anakin - because this is her lived experience. Your story was already told in George’s saga, that’s done. But it is important for her because you’re her mentor. And you have to be both."
"I was always saying you have to be the great person that she admired, that we all admired, that when I was a kid and I heard Luke’s father was Anakin Skywalker, and I was like 'He must’ve been the greatest Jedi ever,' let’s fulfill that promise, because we saw you be young, we saw you be adventurous, but really fall to the dark side."
"But let’s show you as the heroic older brother, the person that kinda cracks wise and makes jokes and, you know, can be serious, but completely cavalier. He was all for it, he dove so far into it, it was almost...you know, just amazing. It gave me pause just to stand there and look at him in the costume, standing next to Ariana, because in my mind, it’s really no different, no matter what the medium was. The image is always Anakin with Ahsoka."
What do you hope to see from Christensen on screen moving forward?