While there were plenty of incredible lightsaber battles in the original Star Wars trilogy, it's not totally unfair to say that most of them were a little...tame. Had the prequels not upped the ante, we might not be saying that, but even the sequels - which grounded those battles again, to some extent - made them a little more action-packed and intense than what we saw the first time around.
Heading into Disney+'s Obi-Wan Kenobi, we know the titular Jedi Master will clash with Darth Vader again, but what sort of lightsaber battle with the one-time best friends actually have?
Talking to Total Film Magazine (via Naboo News), Hayden Christensen was asked if the Sith Lord's fighting style will be more in line with Revenge of the Sith or A New Hope, and it sounds like we'll see an Anakin Skywalker who is at the peak of his abilities ten years after his transformation.
"We’re more in line with the prequels than we are with how the fights are in the original trilogy," the actor confirmed. "These characters have aged, but not that much yet. 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. He is 100 per cent a fully realised Vader."
"This is, in a lot of ways, Vader in his prime. But he’s a very complex character, and there’s an inherent struggle of identity that is always present – there’s inner conflict," Christensen continued, teasing what we can expect. "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."
Will we get to see a glimpse of Anakin in Obi-Wan Kenobi? We're anticipating some flashbacks and a glimpse at what remains of him beneath the helmet, but perhaps we'll finally learn what Vader meant when he told Luke Skywalker that Obi-Wan once also believed he could return from the Dark Side.
We'll find out when Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 27 with its first two episodes.
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