The following article contains spoilers for Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Star Wars is one of the many franchises that are capitalizing on their large universes by churning out projects featuring many of their much-liked characters, the most recent of which was the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan Kenobi featured the return of Ewan McGregor into his role from the prequel trilogy as well as Hayden Christensen, who came back to play Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader.
Obi-Wan Kenobi is not the only Star Wars spinoff series with Ahsoka, Andor, The Mandalorian, and other Star Wars series also in production. But after Hayden Christensen returned to play Darth Vader, we all want to know whether or not he will get his own spinoff series on Disney Plus.
Will there be a Darth Vader spinoff series?
Sadly for Star Wars fans everywhere, a Darth Vader spinoff series has yet to be announced. Do not lose hope yet though, as it does seem smart for Disney to do something with the character and specifically Hayden Christensen. After all, his return in Obi-Wan Kenobi was lauded by fans and Christensen himself has said that he is open to returning as the character.
But if Disney Plus were to pony up and give Darth Vader a spinoff show, what would that look like? Well, at the end of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader was left damaged after a fight with Obi-Wan. The Sith Lord journeyed to his castle in Mustafar where he talked to Emperor Palpatine, played again by veteran Star Wars actor Ian McDiarmid. Vader seemed determined to track down Kenobi once again, but the Emperor dissuaded him from doing so. Plus, the last confrontation between Kenobi and Vader seemed to set up their encounter in Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope perfectly, so it might be best if the two characters were not to meet again.
Darth Vader also makes a return in Star Wars Rebels, and then again in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story. Vader also has a number of canon comic books, which take place not only between Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope but afterward as well. This does mean that while there are a number of Darth Vader stories that have been told in comic book form already, there are still gaps in his story. We know from the comic books that once Order 66 had taken place, the Emperor tasked Vader with hunting down any remaining Jedi, of which he found and defeated his fair share. He was also put in charge of the Inquisitorius for a time and trained them (if you count carving off their limbs as sufficient training).
So maybe a series where Vader hunts down former Jedi? Or maybe a particular Jedi? After all, Quinlan Vos was directly mentioned in an episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. Quinlan was a Jedi who served during the Clone Wars. A Jedi whose specialty was in tracking, Vos had trouble following his former Jedi compatriots, as he had a tendency to go against the traditional ways of the Jedi. A series that followed Vader hunting an expert hunter could prove to be an excellent idea.
It would not make much sense for Darth Vader to interact with many other characters who have already been given spinoffs. For example, Ahsoka and Vader already came face to face in Star Wars Rebels, and another meeting might not work with the timeline unless the story took place after Rebels. The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett took place after Darth Vader’s death in Star Wars: Episode VI — Return of the Jedi, so meeting those characters would also be out of the question.
One area of untapped potential in Star Wars canon is whether or not Darth Vader ever had an apprentice of his own. We know that the Emperor had both Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus as his apprentices before he corrupted Anakin Skywalker, turning him into Darth Vader. Savage Opress and Asajj Ventress were two characters in Star Wars: The Clone Wars who were apprentices to Darth Maul and Darth Tyranus, showing that you could have an apprentice of an apprentice.
Darth Vader has had an apprentice before, except it was in a non-canon Star Wars story, Star Wars: The Force Unleashed in 2008. The individual in question was named Galen Marek, who took on the name Starkiller. In fact, there were several other characters in Star Wars Legends that were Vader’s apprentices for a time, but the fact that none of them are now canon means this particular route is one ripe for a Darth Vader spinoff series.
Or the spinoff could take the path of fleshing out Vader’s place in the Empire. The Star Wars: Darth Vader comic books published by Marvel Comics dove into this particular area a little, specifically concerning Vader’s relationship with Grand Moff Tarkin. Most of these comic books occurred between 2017 and 2018 with writer Charles Soule’s and artist Giuseppe Camuncoli’s run on Star Wars: Darth Vader.
Of course, any series that would focus on Vader’s role in the Empire would flesh out the world of the Empire more than any of the comic book series did with regards to Vader. If done correctly, we might even get more insight into Vader and Tarkin’s relationship, but at the very least we could see Vader act as the Emperor’s lapdog. It would pretty much be what every Darth Vader fan could ever want, Vader traveling planet to planet and wreaking havoc on anyone he is pointed at.
As to whether we might get a spinoff series that took place during the original Star Wars trilogy, that would seem like a bad move. Rogue One managed to show how awesome Darth Vader could be in that period with pretty much just one scene, but tampering with the live-action character during the period in which he is most famous would most likely not go down well with fans.
There is definitely ground to cover if Disney Plus were to bring back Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader for his own spinoff series. Let’s just hope that Disney catches wind of just how much fans enjoyed the character’s return in Obi-Wan Kenobi to give us what we want, a spinoff show.
You can catch the entire season of Obi-Wan Kenobi streaming now on Disney Plus.