‘Star Wars’: Hayden Christensen And Darth Vader Rumored To Return In Upcoming Films

Have you heard the latest Star Wars rumors? There are two currently making the rounds, as reported by Making Star Wars. The first is that actor Hayden Christensen, who portrayed a young Anakin Skywalker in the prequels, is supposedly returning to the Star Wars universe in Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII. The other rumor? Darth Vader will make an appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.

Making Star Wars reports that earlier this year there was concept art for Rogue One rumored to include Darth Vader. Now, a chest piece belonging to the villain has been spotted in the props area, according to a source.

“A fully operational Darth Vader chest piece along with the helmet made it to the creature shop for the next film. The lights on the chest piece work and everything… There were not several of them, just one seen by a source and mentioned by another.”

This information, if correct, doesn’t necessarily mean Darth Vader will be in Rogue One. If Vader does make an appearance in the film, he may not be in any action scenes as it doesn’t make sense for there to only be one suit — there should be several. The suit might only be serving as a model to make backup suits.

Now for the Hayden Christensen rumor. Once again, according to Making Star Wars, they heard Christensen is allegedly going to begin training for an appearance in Star Wars: Episode VIII.

“A team in the U.K. are soon heading to the U.S. to begin training Hayden Christensen for a Star Wars: Episode VIII appearance of some sort.”

Among fans the consensus so far seems to be, why? Why would an actor from the prequels be included in an upcoming film when Star Wars: The Force Awakens seems to be distancing itself as far as possible from the prequels? Comicbook believes there are two possibilities.

“Training?! That doesn’t sound like a mere appearance from a ghost of Anakin. So that leaves us with two possibilities: Anakin flashback scene(s) or he is resurrected — from the dead or as a clone — by Kylo Ren, who is obsessed with Darth Vader.”

Since Disney seems to want fans to be happy, why would Hayden Christensen be welcomed back into the fold? As Uproxx also notes, why would Christensen need to be “trained,” anyhow?

Fans are already lamenting this rumor, citing their disdain for Christensen’s “painfully wooden” acting and zero chemistry with his co-star from the prequels, Natalie Portman. For those who wish the prequels had never happened, this isn’t good news and hopefully will remain just a rumor.

As of this writing, on Christensen’s IMDb page, the actor is listed in the pre-production stage of Marco Polo, with no other projects in the works.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens hits theaters December 18, 2015. Gareth Edwards’ Rogue One: A Star Wars Story is slated for December 16, 2016, while Rian Johnson’s Star Wars: Episode VIII is slated to hit theaters May 26, 2017.

What do you think about these latest rumors?

[Photo by Junko Kimura / Getty Images]