Vanity Fair has run a pretty expansive piece about the future of the Star Wars universe being mapped out on television and with that came news about some of the upcoming shows set to debut on Disney+ in the future. One of the series is Ahsoka, starring Rosario Dawson, and while trades reported that Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader will also be a part of the show, Lucasfilm still isn’t confirming the news.
Dawson herself posted the unconfirmed rumor on her social media after reading a trade report in October 2021 that Christensen was joining the show. In her excitement, the actress took a screenshot of the headline and posted it on Instagram. Dawson used the characters’ nicknames for each other from The Clone Wars in a caption that read “Skyguy…they know!!! See you soon, Snips.” The actress later found out it was an unconfirmed rumor but fans took it as gospel and ran with it since it appeared on her page. Lucasfilm was a bit distressed by the reveal and Dawson said, “I looked in my email, and Star Wars was like, ‘You might want to take that down. I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t be trusted.” Even as of this writing, Lucasfilm won’t confirm if the news is true or if it was a false report. If he does appear, it would make sense as Anakin Skywalker had been her character’s mentor.
Ahsoka will premiere on Disney+ in 2023 and Rosario Dawson’s casting came from tweeted fan suggestions that Lucasfilm took seriously. The character only existed in animation up to this point and was voiced by Ashley Eckstein. The tweet featured a piece of art depicting her as the title character and this made its way to Dave Filoni, who had been working with Jon Favreau to include the character in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. His main goal was to give Ahsoka her own live-action series and that’s what came to be, with Dawson fully on board to do the series. In speaking about the show further, Dave Filoni said, “Ahsoka is a continuous story. It is definitely driving toward a goal, in my mind, as opposed to being little singular adventures. That’s what I want the character to be doing, and I think that’s what fans want now. They have such a relationship with her. I’ve only recently started to understand that all those kids that watched Clone Wars are now a lot older—they’re very excited about all the things they grew up with, as they should be.”
Hayden Christensen will be officially returning as Darth Vader in the upcoming series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, which also sees the return of Ewan McGregor as the titular character. Despite his initial run as the character being scrutinized a bit by fans when Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith were released, fans seem to be welcoming Christensen back with open arms which only goes to show you that time certainly changes things.
Do YOU think Hayden Christensen will appear in the Ahsoka Star Wars series?