What Hayden Christensen Would Look Like Beneath Darth Vader's Mask
In December 2020, Disney and Lucasfilm announced that a very familiar face would be returning to the Star Wars live-action universe. Hayden Christensen will be reprising his role as Darth Vader in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. The series is already in production, although we have yet to see any video or photographic evidence of Hayden Christensen on set.
Despite that, with this announcement, fans have been buzzing about what they are going to do with his character and what he might end up looking like, etc. Darth Vader is obviously usually suited up in the classic black mask/helmet, which was engineered to protect and help Anakin breathe after almost burning completely up on Mustafar in Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith during his epic lightsaber battle against Obi-Wan Kenobi. Fans, however, have started posing the question: what would Hayden Christensen look like under the Darth Vader mask? Burn marks? Pasty skin? Dark circles around the eyes? Other than at the end of Return of the Jedi, we don’t see a full view of Darth Vader/Anakin’s face under the mask. And even in Episode VI, the face we see after Luke removes the mask is of the late actor Sebastian Shaw, who portrayed Darth Vader’s face and his original Anakin Skywalker Force ghost at the end before Lucasfilm superimposed Hayden Christensen as Anakin in 2004 with the re-release of the movie.
Hayden Christensen has not been a part of the Star Wars universe for a long time, unlike some of the other prequel actors, with the exception of voice cameos. He has not done a live-action performance in Star Wars since Revenge of the Sith. Of course, with a series where the main character is Obi-Wan Kenobi, it makes sense that they would bring Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker into the series. Since Lucasfilm/Disney brought back Ewan McGregor to reprise his beloved portrayal of Obi-Wan, it makes sense that they would bring Hayden back as well. Since Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship is, of course, strong. However, we don’t have any idea yet of how we will see him in the series or how he will fit in with the storyline/timeline of the series. We do know, though, that he will be back as Darth Vader, with this series set ten years after the Mustafar confrontation.
There have been many posts on Instagram, Twitter, Reddit, and other sites where fans have created digital art, physical art, edited photographs, etc. to create what they think Hayden Christensen would look like as Darth Vader under the mask. One particular post on Reddit, by user/driku12, is an extremely talented digital art rendering of what Hayden Christensen would look like as a pasty Darth Vader. And it received quite a few upvotes.
The artwork, as reddit user SimonTC2000 pointed out, looks “very cool – but looks a bit too much like Palpatine.”
Another user, OkMess9901, said, “I really hope Obi-Wan and Vader don’t meet in the Obi-Wan series. I think Obi-Wan will be being ‘haunted’ by Vader.”
The brilliant and talent-filled piece of artwork is a bit haunting and does look more like Palpatine than Hayden Christensen’s face. However, it does do justice to the similarities between what Hayden Christensen’s face might look like and that of Sebastian Shaw at the end of Return of the Jedi. It is younger, obviously, but it does resemble the face that we have already seen behind the mask.
Artwork by driku12
Sebastian Shaw as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi.
If Lucasfilm/Disney does give fans a look at what is underneath the mask, it is sure to be an amazing masterpiece of makeup and possibly prosthetics, and may very well look like a pasty white, sunken eye, Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. And hopefully, Obi-Wan and Darth Vader do meet during the series. Whatever the case, if we do see Hayden’s face underneath the mask, it is sure to be something haunting, and yet unique and brilliant.
Source(s): Dork Side of the Force, Reddit