How Star Wars actors’ careers have changed through the decades

7. Hayden Christensen

As the brooding, romantic, and powerful Anakin Skywalker, Hayden Christensen made his mark in the two films he appeared, cementing his interpretation of Young Darth Vader across the canon for years to come.

Before being cast in Attack of the Clones, Christensen worked steadily as a child actor, working in television and gaining attention for his roles in the films The Virgin Suicides and Life as a House.

Christensen came into the franchise with a difficult task–playing the aged-up version of Jake Lloyd’s young Anakin from The Phantom Menace while also still playing a younger version of Anakin from the original trilogy, further progressing on his journey to the Dark Side.

While Christensen became a household name overnight, his career never took off the same way his fellow prequel co-stars’ did, thanks to the rampant outrage from fans who generally hated the prequels and thought his performance was partly to blame.

Christensen made some quiet movies in which his performances were acclaimed and well-received in the prequel era, including Shattered Glass and Factory Girl, before making his most famous action film outside of Star Wars, Jumper, but none of it was enough to fully launch his career.

Thankfully, Christensen’s career looks to be making a comeback. Fans seemed to go wild with the announcement that Christensen would return as Darth Vader in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and the prequels have generally aged well since their release, hopefully allowing the Jedi the second chance he deserves.