Darth Vader Star Wars Spinoff Movie Addressed By Hayden Christensen

Published Sep 23, 2026, 10:53 AM EDT

Jordan is the Senior Editor for Movies & TV News at Screen Rant. She graduated from the University of Oregon with a B.A. in Psychology and a minor in Media Studies. An editor, writer, and digital media specialist based in New York City, you can also find her bylines on Business Insider.

Jordan originally hails from Washington State, giving her an undying loyalty to any Seattle sports team, though she's also spent time in Virginia, Oregon, and New Orleans. She runs on coffee and classic movies, taking pride in having seen every film on AFI's 100 Greatest Films list and every Best Picture Oscar winner.

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Hayden Christensen is ready for a bigger stint as Darth Vader in Star Wars.

After portraying Anakin Skywalker and, eventually, Darth Vader in the latter two entries of the 2005-ending Star Wars prequel movie trilogy, Hayden Christensen finally returned to the role over 15 years later in Disney+'s 2022 limited series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Following the success of Kenobi, Christensen appeared as Force Ghost Anakin in the cast of Disney+'s TV show Ahsoka, and is set to reprise this role in the forthcoming second season. However, Christensen's Darth Vader return could soon be even bigger.

Rumors have recently abounded that a solo Darth Vader spinoff movie is in the works, which would bring back Christensen for his first leading Star Wars film in over 20 years. At the star-studded opening of the Lucas Museum of Narrative Art earlier this past weekend, Hayden Christensen clarified to E! News that the potential film is, indeed, simply a rumor at the moment. However, when asked if he would be open to starring in a Darth Vader spinoff film if it were to come to fruition, the Revenge of the Sith actor gave a resounding affirmative:

E!: And we're hearing rumors of a solo Vader film. Are you interested? What can you tell us?

Hayden Christensen: "Oh, I think those are just rumors."

E!: If it were to come true though, would that be something that you'd be interested in down the line?

Hayden Christensen: "Of course. Yeah, I would be thrilled to get to do that. But right now, those are just rumors."

According to online rumors, which have not been officially addressed by Disney or Lucasfilm, the potential Darth Vader solo movie would take place during a notable gap in the Star Wars timeline between the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV – A New Hope. During that time, Anakin fully grew into his Darth Vader persona under the leadership of Emperor Palpatine while hunting Jedi.

While this era has been explored in some Star Wars shows and movies such as Obi-Wan Kenobi, The Bad Batch, Maul – Shadow Lord, Andor, Rebels, and Rogue One, the only major project to significantly feature and expand on Darth Vader's story was Kenobi. As such, there's still plenty of untapped narrative to explore with a possible Darth Vader film during this time.

If a Darth Vader movie were to move forward at Disney, it would mark the first major Star Wars film with a villain as the primary character. It would also be just the second solo movie for a character from the original Star Wars trilogy, following the 2018 Han Solo prequel movie, Solo, led by Alden Ehrenreich as the titular character.

Recently, however, Star Wars has generally struggled to maintain its historic box office prowess outside the main Skywalker Saga. While the 2016 spinoff Rogue One earned an astounding $1 billion at the box office, Solo earned only $393 million against an estimated $275 million budget, with this year's The Mandalorian and Grogu box office total coming in at just $345 million worldwide against a reported $165 million budget.

A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far, Far Away · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Star Wars? “The Force will be with you. Always.”

🗡️Jedi OrderLight-side guardians

⚡The SithRule of two

⚙️The RebellionA new hope

🪓Bounty HuntersThis is the way

👑The EmpireOrder 66

PUNCH IT! →

01

The original Star Wars film — later retitled Episode IV: A New Hope — opened in just 32 American theatres and proceeded to become the highest-grossing film of its era, redefining what summer blockbusters could be. In which year did it premiere?

A1975 B1977 C1979 D1980

✓ Correct! 1977 — specifically May 25. 20th Century Fox had so little faith in the project they only opened it in 32 theatres at first; queues quickly stretched around the block, and the film expanded to over 1,000 screens within months. It earned $307 million in its initial domestic run, won six Academy Awards (with another four nominations) and inverted Hollywood’s economics for the next 50 years.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 1977. 1975 is when the script was being shopped around. 1979 is when Star Trek: The Motion Picture released as a Star Wars-shaped countermove. 1980 is The Empire Strikes Back. The original Star Wars is May 25, 1977.

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02

A New Hope’s writer-director was a then-32-year-old American Graffiti veteran who’d struggled to get the project greenlit and famously took back-end profit and merchandising rights in lieu of a higher salary — the deal that would build a billion-dollar company. He returned to direct the prequels but stepped away from the original-trilogy sequels. Name him.

ASteven Spielberg BGeorge Lucas CFrancis Ford Coppola DIrvin Kershner

✓ Correct! George Lucas. The merchandising rights he kept (because Fox didn’t value them) became the financial bedrock of Lucasfilm and the basis of the modern toys-and-licensing megabusiness. After A New Hope, Lucas produced but didn’t direct Empire Strikes Back (Irvin Kershner) or Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand), then directed all three prequels (1999–2005). He sold Lucasfilm to Disney in 2012 and stepped away from creative control of the sequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is George Lucas. Steven Spielberg was Lucas’s close friend (and the godfather of his post-A-New-Hope career) but never directed a Star Wars film. Coppola was Lucas’s mentor at USC and at American Zoetrope. Irvin Kershner directed Empire Strikes Back. The original is Lucas’s.

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03

In 1980’s The Empire Strikes Back, Darth Vader delivers cinema’s most-misquoted line at the climax of his Cloud City duel with Luke Skywalker. Vader severs Luke’s hand and reveals their relationship. The exact line is — for the record — “No, I am your father.” What relationship does it confirm?

AVader is Luke’s uncle BVader is Luke’s father (Anakin Skywalker) CVader is Obi-Wan’s brother DVader is Han’s father

✓ Correct! Vader is Anakin Skywalker, Luke’s father. The reveal was so jealously guarded that Mark Hamill was only told the real line on set the day they shot it (the script said “Obi-Wan killed your father”), and even James Earl Jones recorded the dub without knowing the full plot context. The line — commonly misquoted as “Luke, I am your father” — rewrote what trilogies could pull off and is broadly considered cinema’s most famous twist.

✗ Wrong. The answer is that Vader is Luke’s father, Anakin Skywalker. The whole foundation of the Skywalker saga collapses to this single twist: Anakin (the Jedi prodigy of the prequels) becomes Vader after his fall. Luke and Leia are revealed in Return of the Jedi to be his twin children, separated at birth.

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04

Yoda — the green, ear-twitching Jedi Master — was puppeted and voiced from his Empire Strikes Back debut through the prequels and the sequels by a single Muppet-show-veteran performer who also voices Miss Piggy and Fozzie Bear. Name him.

AJim Henson BFrank Oz CSteve Whitmire DBrian Henson

✓ Correct! Frank Oz — longtime Jim Henson collaborator and voice/puppet work on Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Animal, Sam Eagle and Grover. Oz puppeted Yoda directly through The Phantom Menace before CGI took over for Attack of the Clones onward, but he’s continued to voice the character through the sequels and animated series. Yoda’s syntax was developed jointly by Lucas and Oz to feel old, foreign and hard-won.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Frank Oz. Jim Henson was Oz’s mentor and collaborator (he created the Muppets) but didn’t voice Yoda. Steve Whitmire took over Kermit after Henson’s 1990 death. Brian Henson is Jim’s son and runs the Henson company today. Yoda is Frank Oz’s.

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05

In a deal that reshaped Hollywood, Disney acquired Lucasfilm Ltd. for $4.05 billion in cash and stock — bringing Star Wars, Indiana Jones, ILM and Skywalker Sound under the Disney umbrella. The deal also kicked off the sequel trilogy production. In what year did Disney close the acquisition?

A2009 B2010 C2012 D2014

✓ Correct! 2012 — specifically October 30. The deal was announced with simultaneous reveal that a Star Wars Episode VII was being developed for a 2015 release. Lucas had been quietly preparing his exit from Lucasfilm for years; Kathleen Kennedy had been brought in as co-chair months earlier specifically to take over. The Force Awakens came out three years later, in December 2015, kicking off the modern era.

✗ Wrong. The answer is 2012. 2009 is when Disney acquired Marvel ($4 billion). 2010 is the year before Lucas began signalling exit plans. 2014 is when production proper began on The Force Awakens. Lucasfilm joined Disney on October 30, 2012.

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06

The Mandalorian launched as Disney+’s flagship original on November 12, 2019 — the day the streaming service itself launched. Created by Jon Favreau and run by Dave Filoni, the show centres on a helmeted bounty hunter who reluctantly becomes a foster father to “The Child” (Grogu). What is the Mandalorian’s real name?

ABoba Fett BCobb Vanth CDin Djarin DBo-Katan Kryze

✓ Correct! Din Djarin — played by Pedro Pascal under the helmet (with body double Brendan Wayne handling much of the physical work). The Mandalorian is widely credited with reviving Star Wars on TV, popularising the StageCraft LED-volume virtual production technology now used across Hollywood, and turning baby Yoda — Grogu — into the meme-economy phenomenon of late 2019. Three seasons have aired with a feature film, The Mandalorian & Grogu, set for May 2026.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Din Djarin. Boba Fett is the famous bounty hunter from the original trilogy, with his own Disney+ spinoff (The Book of Boba Fett, 2021). Cobb Vanth is the Tatooine marshal played by Timothy Olyphant. Bo-Katan Kryze is the Mandalorian princess played by Katee Sackhoff. The Mandalorian himself is Din Djarin.

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07

Order 66 — the secret directive that turns the Republic’s clone troopers against their Jedi commanders and effectively ends the Jedi Order — is dramatised in the climactic third act of which prequel film?

AEpisode I: The Phantom Menace BEpisode II: Attack of the Clones CEpisode III: Revenge of the Sith DRogue One

✓ Correct! Episode III: Revenge of the Sith (2005). Palpatine’s “Execute Order 66” comm to the clone armies leads to the methodical, planet-by-planet liquidation of the Jedi Order — one of the saga’s most operatic sequences, scored to John Williams’ “Anakin’s Betrayal” cue. The same film features Anakin’s fall to the Dark Side, the Mustafar duel with Obi-Wan, and his rebirth as Darth Vader in the suit. Widely re-evaluated as the best of the prequels.

✗ Wrong. The answer is Revenge of the Sith. Phantom Menace ends with Qui-Gon’s death and the unveiling of Darth Maul. Attack of the Clones ends with the Clone Wars beginning. Rogue One is set just before A New Hope, after Order 66 has long since happened. The Order 66 sequence is the climax of Episode III.

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08

Andor (2022–25) is widely regarded as the most adult, politically literate Star Wars project ever made — a slow-burn prequel to Rogue One charting Cassian Andor’s radicalisation against the Empire. The series was created and showrun by a writer/director best known for the original Bourne trilogy and Michael Clayton. Name him.

ATony Gilroy BRian Johnson CJon Favreau DDave Filoni

✓ Correct! Tony Gilroy. He’d previously been brought in for extensive Rogue One reshoots in 2016, and Lucasfilm gave him near-total creative independence on Andor. Season 1 (12 episodes, 2022) is widely regarded as Star Wars’ finest dramatic writing ever; Season 2 (also 12 episodes, in four three-episode jumps across 2025) closes the gap to Rogue One’s opening scene. Gilroy’s prior credits: Bourne Identity / Supremacy / Ultimatum / Legacy, plus directing Michael Clayton (2007).

✗ Wrong. The answer is Tony Gilroy. Rian Johnson directed The Last Jedi (2017). Jon Favreau created The Mandalorian and is Lucasfilm’s Disney+-era animation/live-action lieutenant. Dave Filoni runs the Filoniverse (Clone Wars, Rebels, Ahsoka, the upcoming Heir to the Empire film). Andor is Tony Gilroy’s.

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The Force Has Spoken · Final Tally Your Galactic Standing

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Jedi Master — or moisture farmer on Tatooine?

⤴ ANOTHER GO

Consequently, if Star Wars were to move forward with a Hayden Christensen-led Darth Vader solo movie, it's possible the studio could opt for a streaming-exclusive release on Disney+ instead of a theatrical debut. However, the fate of spinoffs in the near future getting major theatrical releases may be decided by the performance of the Ryan Gosling-starring Star Wars: Starfighter, which is scheduled to hit theaters in May 2027.