“We will see a very powerful Vader,” promises the returned Hayden Christensen. We've already shown you exclusive first look footage of Ewan McGregor's return as the Caped Jedi Master in Obi-Wan Kenobi (premiering May 25 on Disney+).
These depictions also included the return of Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen, as well as a formidable new enemy in the form of a force-sensitive Inquisitor named Reva (played by King's Gambit's Moses Ingram). But McGregor and Edgerton aren't the only actors returning to the Star Wars franchise for a new series, and Reva and the Grand Inquisitor (shown in the recently released trailer) aren't the only Imperial villains on the hunt. Hear some labored mechanical breathing sounds, because the Dark Lord of the Sith himself has returned, and we have your exclusive first look at the return of Darth Vader.
Also returning is the helmeted man, Hayden Christensen, who went from Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker to a dark side villain in the Star Wars prequel films Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. Like McGregor, it took Christensen 17 years to bring back Christensen in black and play one of the most iconic figures in pop culture history.
In our exclusive image above, we can see Vader emerging from his meditation room, which begs the question, since the meditation room allows the Sith Lord to take off his helmet (as seen in The Empire Strikes Back when poor Admiral Piett briefly admires the wounded back of Vader's head before the helmet was lowered on her), could this mean we'll catch a glimpse of Vader unmasked in Obi-Wan Kenobi? “I wish I could tell you,” Christensen tells EW with a shy smile on his face. "I swore to secrecy." As for the Dark Lord we'll see in the series, which will help fill the gap between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, Christensen put it more bluntly: "We're going to see a very powerful Vader." the actor promises.
While it seems like there's a chance of seeing Vader unmasked, how much Vader will we actually see in the series? “His shadow casts a lot of what we do,” series writer Joby Harold teases. “And the extent of its closeness to that shadow is something we will discover. But he's a very emotional part of the show for Obi-Wan, and maybe beyond that."