Hayden Christensen: It's a great honour to play Darth Vader

Hayden Christensen says it’s “a great honour” to return to the 'Star Wars' franchise.

The 40-year-old actor - who portrayed Anakin Skywalker, the younger version of Darth Vader in the 00s prequels in the George Lucas movie series - is thrilled to reprise the role in the Disney+ series ‘Obi-Wan Kenobi’.

Hayden told Entertainment Weekly: "Well, without getting into too much detail, it was amazing. It's a great honor to get to put that suit on."

The ‘Jumper’ star admitted it felt like a "natural continuation" of the character, the father of Luke Skywalker.

Hayden said: "It was mostly a lot of excitement because I had spent enough time with this character and felt like I knew him, and coming back to it felt very natural in a lot of ways and I was just really excited to get to come in and play Darth Vader at this point in the timeline because it did feel like a natural continuation of your journey with the character. And that was very meaningful for me."

He shared that he and his co-star Ewan McGregor - who is coming back as the titular character - found the process “surreal” and a “unique opportunity”.

Hayden said: "The whole experience was very surreal. Just the nature of coming back after all this time. It's such a unique opportunity — one that both Ewan and I were very grateful for."

The ‘Star Wars: Attack of the Clones’ star - who has seven-year-old daughter Briar Rose with his ex Rachel Bilson, 40 - got a real buzz from the "shared excitement" felt on the set of the iconic movies.

Hayden said: "One of the things I loved so much about working on 'Star Wars' projects is just that shared excitement, that everyone’s real excited to be there. You just feel that energy, and that’s just a really special thing.”