There are probably some people that are going to feel a certain way about this since Hayden Christensen wasn’t exactly embraced by a lot of Star Wars fans when it came to his role as Anakin Skywalker. But the best thing about his rumored return to the Obi-Wan series coming to Disney+ is that he’ll likely be a memory and little else since at the time of Obi-Wan’s exile Anakin had ceased to exist and Darth Vader had taken over. According to Matt Joseph of We Got This Covered Hayden will be making a return to the show, in cameo form obviously, perhaps to bedevil the exiled Jedi Obi-Wan with the many choices that he made and the results that came after. If anyone is wondering why this might be problematic for the Jedi Master then they need to read the books again or watch the movies since Anakin was quite the troublemaker during his time as a padawan and then as a Jedi. If there’s any reason for this it’s because Anakin came with a lot of baggage that couldn’t just be forgotten, and one of the only saving graces he had in becoming a Jedi was that he was exceptionally powerful and he had a well-renowned Jedi to stick up for him in Qui-Gon Jinn. In fact Obi-Wan didn’t even want him around if you’ll remember the prequels, at least not at first.
Despite the initial tension between them, which never really went away, Anakin and Obi-Wan would eventually become as close as brothers and as such they shared a bond that wasn’t easy to break given that they also shared a great many adventures. The Clone Wars unfortunately did a great deal of damage not just to the galaxy but also to the ties that bound a lot of people together. One of Anakin’s worst traits, his infamous temper, often got the better of him and acted with his impulsive nature to get him into a spot of trouble here and there. Obi-Wan did what he could to temper the younger Jedi but was often hard-pressed to get Anakin to listen to anything he said since Anakin was determined to do things his way. While many people might not have read the books that came between The Phantom Menace and The Clone Wars, there are many tales in which the younger padawan got himself into worlds of trouble that he had to figure out or others had to take the time and effort to help him out of. He was strong with the Force without any doubt, but the reason that Obi-Wan was the perfect teacher, at the time, was that he had years of experience on Anakin and a great deal of patience that helped most times.
Many still seem to have an issue with their final duel in The Revenge of the Sith in which Obi-Wan triumphantly states “I have the high ground!”, but as Joshua Yehl of IGN states there is a funny story behind that. Be that as it may however, this could be a torturous memory that Obi-Wan continues to have, and possibly one that follows him to Tatooine and thereby necessitates the need for Christensen to return since giving rise to the idea that he would be there to haunt Obi-Wan does sound like a great idea for the overall story. Hayden won’t be a main character probably and will only show up now and again as one could guess, but given the fact that there are many years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope there are a lot of things that could possibly happen on Tatooine and there is also the matter of how many Jedi managed to escape Order 66 and how Obi-Wan might react to learning that there might be more than he thought. There are plenty of story ideas for this series and hopefully it will run for more than one or two seasons since Obi-Wan Kenobi has been a popular character for so long. Anakin Skywalker might be a recurring character but at the same time it’s best not to make him someone that’s going to pop up every other episode largely because it’s not only cruel to such a loved character, but letting go of the man he was so that he can focus on life as it is instead of how it was would be a serious developmental arc for Obi-Wan that is quite important. At some point watching over Luke becomes the most important part of his existence, since he believes that Luke might be the one to bring balance to the Force where his father did not.
It’s going to be a while before we get to see the new Obi-Wan series, but once it hits you can imagine that we’ll be writing about it plenty.
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