Jared Leto may enjoy annoying his castmates through his particular style of method acting, but there are certainly other ways to get invested in a role. The upcoming Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney Plus has offered several actors a chance to take on their classic characters from the franchise once again, and it looks like Hayden Christensen wasted no time in getting his binge on.
It's old news by now that Christensen will appear as Darth Vader for the first time since Episode III: Revenge of the Sith in the limited Star Wars series. His inevitable reunion with Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi is probably enough to entice many potential viewers to take the plunge, but that's only half of the story. This is a role he hasn't played on-screen in over 15 years, so he'd be forgiven for being a little rusty. However, it looks like Christensen has no intention of phoning it in.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Christensen spoke about how he binged some of the animated Star Wars offerings to re-familiarize himself with the universe that made him a star, and he was pleasantly surprised to see how much the series had expanded since his time with it. Namely, after watching all the films once again, he chose to catch up on both The Clone Wars and Rebels, which both contributed some of the most engaging and satisfying moments in recent Star Wars memory, not the least of which involved the relationships between Anakin and Obi-Wan as well as Anakin and his apprentice and friend Ahsoka. "It was interesting," Christensen mused. "They did a lot with these characters in those shows. And they did further explore the relationship. There was interesting stuff there to learn about. It was great fun getting to go back and re-immerse yourself in this world that just continues to grow and become more and more vast."
Naturally, Christensen wasn't the only one who brushed up on the lore to get back into character. While he went beyond by adding the animated shows, both he and McGregor also separately ran through not only the Star Wars prequel trilogy but the entire 9-film Skywalker saga. But interestingly, this was the first time the Obi-Wan actor had seen the prequels since they were released. "It was interesting to watch our films because I hadn't seen them since they came out, not at all," McGregor admitted. "So it was cool to see and interesting to watch them and enjoy them without all of the noise that was around when they came out."
It's certainly understandable that a lot has changed since those days. Even if the films themselves are still the same ones that released way back when, all the animated shows, spinoffs, and other supplemental materials that have come out since then basically changed the context of everything that came before. So even if McGregor didn't delve into the Star Wars lore like Christensen, there's still a new feel behind it all that wasn't present the last time he saw them.
Looks like Christensen is a bit of an over-achiever just like Anakin himself was, particularly on the battlefields of The Clone Wars. With his impending return on both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Ahsoka, that may be all but required to give audiences the best possible rendition of the character. However it turns out, he's definitely giving it his all, and that's worth respect.
Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi will premiere on May 27th, 2022, on Disney Plus.
Source: Entertainment Weekly