Star Wars: Behind-the-Scenes Photo of Hayden Christensen’s Vader Makeup Resurfaces, Catches Fire on Reddit

The Star Wars prequels utilized many advances in technology to take visual effects to the next level, depicting bizarre worlds and high-tech vessels. One element of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith that utilized practical effects, however, was Anakin Skywalker’s horrific burns that he suffered on Mustafar in his conflict with Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over on a dedicated Star Wars page on Reddit, images of the makeup have resurfaced and gained lots of attention from fans.

While the user who uploaded the photo described the image as “rare,” the image has previously been posted on various corners of the Internet, including that same Reddit page years ago.

Even if the photo isn’t particularly rare, it’s still astonishing to see the makeup work that went into the sequences that only took up a few moments of screen time. Following the battle, Anakin was retrieved by Emperor Palpatine and earned his iconic Darth Vader outfit, covering up the gruesome injuries.

The thread itself saw fans expressing their admiration for the prequel trilogy’s various effects, confessing that, even if they weren’t fans of the narrative, they were impressed by the various production elements of the series.

Star of the prequel films Ewan McGregor expressed earlier this year that recent years have seen an embrace of the films that fans were initially apprehensive about.

“Episode III was all green screen: they had us on green disks on a green floor with a green background, and a guy on the floor rotating us like chickens, as we lunged at each other with lightsabers,” McGregor shared with Vanity Fair. “What keeps you emotionally grounded is the other actor. Episode II, I was on my own, speaking to thin air. But this scene was harrowing for Obi-Wan. I lose Anakin, and we see the danger of what it might lead to in Episodes IV, V, and VI. For all my moaning about green screen, I did enjoy playing Obi-Wan and this link to Alec Guinness.”

He added, “George Lucas wanted to do something very different with the prequels. That’s why people felt cheated. It was upsetting when people would laugh and joke about it. Now, many years later, the prequels meant a lot to the generation that were kids then. So from smirking, cynical opinions, now I’m getting feedback from the kids they were made for. I’m really happy about that.”

Across the various trilogies, spinoff films, animated series, novels, and comic books, one of the joys of the Star Wars saga is how it offers audiences a variety of compelling stories, even if you don’t love every installment into the franchise.

Do you wish we had gotten to seen more of this makeup in the prequel film? Let us know in the comments below or hit up @TheWolfman on Twitter to talk all things Star Wars and horror!

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