Star Wars prequel trilogy actor Hayden Christensen recalled his excitement playing a new side of Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka.
“I was getting to play a version of this character that I hadn’t done before,” Christensen said to Entertainment Weekly’s Dagobah Dispatch podcast about his experience playing the fallen Jedi Knight in the World Between Worlds on the Disney+ series.
He added, “And when we meet Anakin in the World Between Worlds, it’s sort of me getting to play the totality of Anakin and Darth Vader. It’s an understanding of everything that he’s been through. And then when we go back to the Clone Wars flashback, that was just awesome.”
On playing Anakin Skywalker as Ahsoka’s mentor
Christensen played Anakin as Obi-Wan Kenobi’s apprentice in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. The actor reprised the role 17 years later to play Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which was set ten years later. Christensen recalled watching the animated Clone Wars series during preparation for Obi-Wan and how “it was a real gift” when series creator Dave Filoni asked him to play Anakin as Ahsoka Tano’s (Rosario Dawson) confident but challenging Jedi Master.
“That was a version of the character that I was aware of when we were doing the prequels,” Christensen recalled. “When we went to go do Episode III, George [Lucas] spoke a lot about what had happened in between Episode II and Episode III. And, of course, that was what Dave Filoni spent a lot of time exploring in the animated world, but I never really got to play that. And I remember when George was describing Anakin during the Clone Wars as being this great hero and a great leader, I thought, ‘Wow, that’s really cool. I wish we could see a little bit of that.’ And we do a little bit. At the beginning of Episode III, you get a taste of it, but then very quickly he becomes consumed with all of the inner conflict again.”
All eight episodes of Ahsoka are now streaming on Disney+.
