Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen will return as Luke and Anakin in the upcoming new Star Wars movie.
By Nathan Kamal | Update
Star Wars fans have something new to get excited (or alternatively, extremely crazy about): Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen will appear as Force Ghosts in the franchise’s recently announced next installment. According to our trusted and trusted sources, both actors will reprise their roles as Luke and Anakin Skywalker, respectively, in the new Daisy Ridley-directed film, despite having passed away in previous installments. Of course, Star Wars being what it is, the characters of Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen have already come back from death, so why not another time?
We previously broke the news that Lucasfilm was bringing Daisy Ridley’s Rey back for a new movie a few months ago, which was later confirmed by other sources. We also reported that Kathleen Kennedy said the new movie will take place about 15 years later. The Rise of Skywalker, with Rey attempting to rebuild the Jedi Order and seemingly ruining everything. As such, it would make sense for Mark Hamill (who has some experience in failed Return of the Jedi) and Hayden Christensen (who has significant experience in, uh, another aspect of no Jedi) to show up. in a certain way.
While we don’t yet know if Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen will somehow interact as Force Ghosts in the new Star Wars movie, it certainly raises the intriguing possibility of Jedi father and son coming face-to-face for the first time. Although the two actors have appeared in several Star Wars projects over the years, they have never been in a scene together; Return of the JediHayden Christensen’s ex post facto insertion doesn’t really matter, nor do the two have a voice at the climax of The Rise of Skywalker. At the very least, the two Skywalkers could have a discussion about why the eldest of the two Force Ghosts is decades younger than his own son.
More recently, Mark Hamill reprized the role of Luke Skywalker in the relatively disappointing Boba Fett bookafter first reappearing via a combination of CGI, stock footage and voiceovers in The Mandalorian. For his part, Hayden Christensen starred in the most critically acclaimed film Obi Wan Kenobi as Darth Vader and Anakin Skywalker.
As a breakthrough Disney+ series The Mandalorian slowly lost both viewership and critical goodwill, it makes sense that Lucasfilm would be looking for a big new project to get fans excited about. With Mark Hamill being perhaps the Star Wars franchise’s most beloved figurehead and Hayden Christensen’s prequel films being critically acclaimed, bringing them both back is an understandable ploy.
On the other hand, repeatedly bringing back deceased characters to lend their support to Daisy Ridley can be seen as diminishing the sacrifice of their heroic deaths. Lucasfilm might want to tread that line with caution, then. We’ll be happy to see Mark Hamill and Hayden Christensen back, but we don’t want them to get noticed every time the ratings drop.