Fans were pleasantly(?) surprised when it was announced that Star Wars prequels actor Hayden Christensen would reprise the role of Darth Vader for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, and have been wondering exactly how the iconic villain would be depicted ever since.
After all, Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy made a point of confirming that Christensen would be playing Vader and not Anakin Skywalker, so why bring the actor back if he's going to be hidden behind a mask for the majority of his scenes?
Well, thanks to some leaked concept art via StarWars.net, we now have our answer.
The image shows the Sith Lord wearing a new type of breathing apparatus which only partially obscures his face, suggesting that he'll be spending a significant amount of time without his traditional helmet. There's also an artist's rendering of a bacta-tank that was spotted on the set. We will almost certainly see that classic Vader visage at some point, of course, but this is a great way to allow Christensen to show his face (well, his eyes) without completely contradicting the events of Revenge of the Sith.
Check out the artwork in the Tweet below.
Specific plot details are under wraps, but we do know that Obi-Wan will be set between the events of Revenge Of The Sith and A New Hope. There are also rumors that younger versions of both Luke Skywalker and Leia Organa will appear, but that's yet to be confirmed.
Christensen and Ewan McGregor and Ingram join Indira Varma, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell and Benny Safdie. Their characters have not been announced, but some set photos did recently confirm that Varma will play an Imperial Officer.
The Mandalorian director Deborah Chow is set to helm all episodes of the series, with Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy on board as producer along-with Chow, Jason D. McGatlin (The Rise of Skywalker), Tracey Seaward (The Queen), and John Swartz (Rogue One).