The wonderful thing about Darth Vader, as far as Star Wars creatives must be concerned, is that while he did eventually cop it during the events of the original George Lucas film trilogy, he was alive and kicking for a much longer period than we’ve generally witnessed on either big or small screens. There was that powerful season two finale to Star Wars Rebels, in which the Sith Lord battled his former apprentice, Ahsoka Tano, and of course the brief scenes in 2016’s excellent film Rogue One, both of which featured the return of James Earl Jones’s essential velvety tones.
What then of Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi, the forthcoming Disney+ TV show in which Hayden Christensen, he of the execrable prequels, is billed as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader? Even in the original movie, 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, in which the Jedi Knight finally falls to the dark side, Lucas had Jones voice the not-so-iconic scene in which Anakin finally pulls on the dreaded shiny black armour. Perhaps it was still Christensen in the suit – he certainly looked like a much titchier Vader than the one portrayed physically by the British bodybuilder Dave Prowse in the 70s and 80s films. But even if it was, the Canadian actor didn’t exactly have much to do.
