After rumours he'd appear in the Star Wars trilogy failed to pan out, Hayden Christensen made his long-awaited return to the franchise as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The actor, who has become a beloved figure among Star Wars fans, later reprised the role in Ahsoka as a Force Ghost and hologram, with the finale setting the stage for Anakin to play a much bigger role on Peridia when the series returns with season 2.
Work is currently underway on Ahsoka's second batch of episodes, and a couple of cancelled convention appearances have left fans convinced that Christensen will have much more to do when the show returns to Disney+ next year.
It started when Spacecon San Antonio took to social media to write, "We had attempted to have Hayden Christensen return to appear with The Emperor 'Ian McDiarmid' ... but Hayden is still filming the next season of Ahsoka and is unable to commit." Later, Comic Con Manchester said the actor had to cancel his appearance for them this July because of "night-time film shoots."
As the finale suggested, we'd bet on Anakin guiding Ahsoka Tano and Sabine Wren on their journey across Peridea as a Force Ghost (The Clone Wars fans among you will know that he's also closely connected to the Mortis Gods). We may also see more of those training videos he once made for "Snips."
"I know my friend Ewan would be game for that as well," Christensen said earlier this year about possibly suiting up for a live-action version of The Clone Wars. "It's a cool look. It's a cool sort of period in Star Wars, and I think there are great stories that we could tell there. So who knows, maybe one day."
Acknowledging that it would "require a little bit of de-ageing" magic to make that happen, he continued, "I love this character. I would love the chance to continue to explore Anakin's story some more and hopefully do the Darth Vader timeline a little bit more too. I think there are more stories there to be told."
"George Lucas made some very bold choices and I love that he did that," Christensen added, reflecting on his role in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. "However, he did it in a way that we could still digest everything. For example, Anakin is killing younglings, but we don't actually see it. But yeah, I like it when Star Wars goes dark. That works for me."
Only time will tell how much of Christensen's Anakin—or Vader—we see in Ahsoka season 2, but an expanded role for the actor appears likely if he's having to pull out of conventions like this (those are hugely profitable for actors, so we're sure he wouldn't skip it unless there was no other choice).
Stay tuned for updates as we have them.