Hayden Christensen Returns as Anakin Skywalker in Ahsoka Season Two

Anakin Skywalker is coming back. Production on Ahsoka season two began this week in the UK.Hayden Christensen will reprise his role as Anakin Skywalker in season two of Ahsoka, the Lucasfilm and Disney+ series starring Rosario Dawson. The announcement was made during the Star Wars Celebration event in Tokyo, Japan.

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Ahsoka creator Dave Filoni, executive producer Jon Favreau and lead actress Rosario Dawson took the main stage for a panel discussing the inspirations behind the series and the making of season one. Filoni spoke about the huge influence of Hayao Miyazaki's Princess Mononoke, while Favreau spoke about George Lucas' love for the character of Ahsoka and reminisced about casting Dawson. The actress added that they started filming season two of Ahsoka this week.

After a brief scene between Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka played on the big screen, Christensen walked out to thunderous applause from the audience. But the announcement of his return didn't come until near the end of the panel. "I can't say much about it, but Anakin is coming back for season two," Christensen said to more whoops and cheers from the audience.

Elsewhere, Filoni also spoke briefly about Rory McCann taking over the role of Baylan Skoll from the late Ray Stevenson, who passed away in May 2023. He confirmed that Admiral Akbar will return in season two, taking on Grand Admiral Thrawn.

Christensen played the future Darth Vader in 2002's Star Wars: Attack of the Clones and 2005's Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. He returned to the Star Wars universe by reprising his role as Anakin and Vader in the Star Wars series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and subsequently appeared, in a digitally enhanced form, in two episodes of the first season of Ahsoka.

The actor was a star attraction at this year’s Celebration, which included signings and photo ops with key Star Wars players including Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Rogue One’s Mads Mikkelsen, Andor lead Diego Luna and Ahmed Best (Jar Jar Binks). Anecdotally, though, Christensen, who hasn’t appeared in a major production and has even taken a break from screen work since wrapping up his Star Wars work in the 2000s, has emerged as one of the best, if not the best, crowd-pleasers in this part of the Celebration universe.

Ahsoka follows the events following Return of the Jedi, following Ahsoka Tano, the outcast Jedi who was Skywalker's former padawan (apprentice). The series also stars Natasha Liu Bordizzo, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Ivanna Sakhno, Diana Lee Inosanto, David Tennant, Eman Esfandi, Evan Whitten, Genevieve O'Reilly, Ariana Greenblatt, and Lars Mikkelsen.