Hayden Christensen Teases Surprising Star Wars Prequel Co-Star Who Wants to Return & The Idea That Could Make It Happen

When the Star Wars prequels were originally released, they proved to be quite divisive. However, in the decades since, the films have been reappraised and are seen in a much more favorable light today. This has opened opportunities for prequel trilogy actors to return to their roles, adding more chapters to the Star Wars canon. Most notably, Ewan McGregor came back to headline Obi-Wan Kenobi, which also featured Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. A year later, Christensen returned to the galaxy far, far away again to play Anakin Skywalker on Ahsoka. Fans are curious to see who else from this era could reprise a role, and Christensen knows there’s one surprising name who’d be up for it.

During an appearance on the podcast Hey Jonas!, Christensen pitched an idea for a project that would reunite many of the stars of the prequel trilogy. “I know that Ewan McGregor would love to do more with it,” he said. “I’ve heard Natalie [Portman] would love to come back. Sam Jackson. So you could get the band back together.” This was in response to a question about a possible Anakin Skywalker series, after Christensen shared he enjoyed playing the Clone Wars-era Anakin in live-action.

Hayden Christensen’s Star Wars Idea is Great, But There Would Be Challenges

Hearing Christensen mention Portman by name is arguably the most interesting part of his quote. McGregor is actively pitching ideas for Obi-Wan Kenobi Season 2 and Samuel L. Jackson has maintained for years that Mace Windu could have survived his fall from Palpatine’s office in Revenge of the Sith. In the past, Portman has said she’d be up for a Star Wars return, but she’s seemed more reserved about it than McGregor or Jackson (in that she hasn’t seemed to be truly pushing for something). Her old co-stars would love to see her reprise Padmé Amidala. Only a handful of days ago, Christensen spoke openly about his desire to work with Portman again, tapping into another side of Anakin and Padmé’s relationship.

There have been conflicting rumors suggesting Portman will appear in Ahsoka Season 2, most likely in a World Between Worlds sequence similar to Season 1’s landmark episode “Part Five: Shadow Warrior.” Debuting in Star Wars Rebels, the World Between Worlds is a mythical location that allows Force users to jump between points in time and space. Similar to the Clone Wars flashbacks in Ahsoka Season 1, Season 2 could depict a moment between Padmé and Ahsoka from her time as a Padawan. What Christensen is suggesting is more of a straightforward live-action Clone Wars series that delves into this portion of the timeline much more than some key flashbacks.

Watching the Clone Wars in all their glory in live-action would be a treat for any Star Wars fan — particularly those who grew up with the prequels. Only brief tastes of the conflict are shown in the films; the Clone War doesn’t begin until the end of Attack of the Clones, and it’s over by the midway point of Revenge of the Sith. The animated Clone Wars series was terrific and did a lot of heavy lifting when it came to rehabbing the prequels’ image, but live-action could allow Lucasfilm to portray the battles with a much larger sense of scale and scope. One of the bigger issues with this concept, however, is that the animated series was so thorough in its depiction of the Clone Wars that it’d be difficult to find a new story from that era worth telling. So much ground was covered on Clone Wars, which ultimately overlaps with Revenge of the Sith. After seven seasons, there may not be much left for Lucasfilm to say here.

There’s also the matter of Disney’s changing strategies regarding output. For the first half of the 2020s, streaming was a massive part of the company’s portfolio, as there was a plethora of Marvel and Star Wars shows. Now, Disney is scaling back on that front. The only upcoming live-action Marvel and Star Wars shows are the ones that have already been shot. No new projects have been announced, suggesting that Disney is closing the book on what was a rather controversial era for the studio. Streaming shows became too expensive for the business model to be sustainable long-term, and it’d be tricky to pull off something like live-action Clone Wars without pouring a considerable amount of time and money into the show. Sadly, Christensen’s pitch for prequel nostalgia may just be an unrealized dream.

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