Hayden Christensen Returns as Anakin on New Star Wars Novel Cover

Hayden Christensen debuted in the Star Wars saga as Anakin Skywalker with 2002's Attack of the Clones, only going on to reprise his role once for 2005's Revenge of the Sith. The actor himself has been absent from Star Wars stories for more than a decade, though his likeness was revived for a special edition cover for the novel Thrawn: Alliances from Del Rey Books.

The new novel will be available on July 24th. The official synopsis is as follows:

"Grand Admiral Thrawn and Darth Vader ally against a threat to the Empire in this new novel from bestselling author Timothy Zahn. The sequel to New York Times bestseller Thrawn, Thrawn: Alliances will continue to follow the rise of Grand Admiral Thrawn to the heights of Imperial power—and accompany him into the past, witnessing his first encounter with the man who will one day become Darth Vader."

The official cover for the novel depicts the two characters in a similar pose though at a different point in time, depicting Vader in his iconic helmet and Thrawn in his more professional Imperial attire.

Thrawn: Alliances was written by Timothy Zahn, who wrote last year's immensely popular Thrawn, as well as the original Thrawn trilogy from the '90s. While those books now fall under the Legends storylines that aren't canon, Thrawn emerged in Star Wars Rebels and became an integral component of that official storyline.

Rebels concluded last March and teased that both Thrawn and budding Jedi Ezra Bridger were killed by a jump to hyperspace, yet producer Dave Filoni confirmed later that the characters survived the horrifying experience.

"I thought a lot about that… It's one of those things that you go 'Oh boy, I love the idea of an end credits scene!'" Filoni revealed about including a teaser involving the characters. "But as tempting as that is, I [decided that] if I cover that, then I want to do it right, and I don't want to commit to things right now because things might change. So I have a lot of theories about it and what I think happens and where they are. I'll say this much: they're not dead. Both of them survive, both Ezra and Thrawn I would say survive it."

Thrawn: Alliances hits shelves July 24th while the exclusive cover will be available at San Diego Comic-Con, kicking off on July 19th.

Would you like to see Christensen return to the saga in a more official capacity? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

[H/T StarWars.com]