Power of the Dark Side unfurled as Hayden Christensen set to return for Obi-Wan standalone series

We've known for quite some time that Ewan McGregor would be returning to the Star Wars galaxy for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series. But Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy gave fans a huge reveal in today's Disney's Investor Day presentation when she announced that Hayden Christensen is also set to return as Darth Vader in the new live-action Disney+ project.

Christensen joins the cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi to reprise his role of Kenobi's former protege-turned-enemy. Throughout the prequel films, McGregor played Jedi Master Obi-Wan, while Christensen played Anakin Skywalker, and, inevitably, Darth Vader. Now we know they'll both be back for the new series from writer Hossein Amini and director Deborah Chow in what Kennedy described as "the rematch of the century."

The Disney+ series takes place 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith and roughly a decade before the beginning of A Hew Hope, with Kenobi well into his exile on Tattooine. That's a lot of time to explore and a lot of change for a character to go through.

McGregor told Entertainment Tonight in September that the live-action series aims to kick off production in the spring of 2021. And although the plan, as it stands now, is to make Obi-Wan Kenobi a limited series, the actor did hint that those plans could change if it proves to be a hit.

Obi-Wan Kenobi joins not only The Mandalorian, but a whole batch of new Star Wars shows slated to appear on the Disney streaming service, including Andor, Lando, A Droid Story, The Rangers of the New Republic, Ahsoka, The Bad Batch, and a High Republic-related series coming from Leslye Headland called Acolyte. That galaxy far, far away suddenly just got a whole lot bigger.