Ewan McGregor’s long-awaited return as Obi-Wan Kenobi in an eponymous Disney+ limited series has already caused a great disturbance in the Force. And George Lucas’s far, far away galaxy is about to be rocked all over again after Lucasfilm dropped an image of Hayden Christensen suiting up as Jedi Master-turned-Sith Lord Anakin Skywalker aka Darth Vader for the first time since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith.
“It was amazing,” the actor told Entertainment Weekly. “It’s a great honor to put that suit on.”
Set 10 years after the events of the prequel trilogy, Obi-Wan Kenobi finds McGregor’s fallen Jedi warrior hiding out on the desert planet of Tatooine, where he watches young Luke Skywalker grow up from afar. But the Empire isn’t done with him yet: The Jedi-hunting Grand Inquisitor has dispatched agents to stamp out and kill the lightsaber-wielding warriors that survived Emperor Palpatine’s genocidal Order 66.
Inquisitor Reva, played by Moses Ingram, takes it upon herself to find Obi-Wan. And as she teased to Entertainment Weekly in a separate story, she’s got a special connection to Vader. “They share a common Dark Side goal. They’re on the same team.”
Christensen, meanwhile, is just happy to be back on Team Star Wars. “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 tells EW. “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.”
Originally scheduled to launch on Disney+ on May 25, Obi-Wan Kenobi will now premiere on May 27 with back-to-back episodes. McGregor relayed the news to fans via Twitter, thanking them for their “incredible support” of the show so far.
As for whether Anakin now has the high ground over Obi-Wan in their rematch, Christensen makes like Darth Maul in The Phantom Menace and stays mostly silent. “I don’t think they want me saying too much,” he teases. “But I can tell you the first time that I saw Ewan as Obi-Wan again, that was a very special moment for me and one that I’ll remember for a very, very long time.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres May 27 on Disney+
