Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader returned in the TV series Obi-Wan Kenobi, but how old is Darth Vader during the events of the Star Wars Disney+ show? Although the Skywalker Saga is over, the Star Wars universe keeps expanding on other branches, most notably via Disney+ as part of Disney’s slate of original Star Wars content. The success of The Mandalorian led Disney to develop more TV series set in a galaxy far, far, away, and through them, it has explored different stories and characters set between chapters of the Skywalker Saga. One such Star Wars Disney+ show was 2022’s Obi-Wan Kenobi, which connected the Prequel and Original Star Wars trilogies. But how old is Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi?
Directed by Deborah Chow, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a miniseries streaming exclusively on Disney+ that focuses on the titular Jedi master, played by Ewan McGregor. Set after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi follows the title character as he watches over Darth Vader’s (Hayden Christensen) son, Luke Skywalker, on Tatooine, but he’s also hiding and living a solitary life in exile. Meanwhile, Vader has set up the Sith Inquisitors program, a group of dark side Force users, with the purpose of hunting down the Jedi who survived Order 66.
What made Obi-Wan Kenobi so exciting was not only seeing McGregor reprising the role after all these years but also the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. The series filled in some gaps left by the Skywalker Saga between Revenge of the Sith and Star Wars: A New Hope. In the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (Episodes 1-3) the audience followed Anakin Skywalker’s journey from his days as a young slave to his rise as a powerful Sith Lord. When he returned in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker was a decade into his life as Darth Vader, but there are still some years to go before he finally vanquishes his former master in A New Hope. So how old is Darth Vader in the Disney+ series?
Obi-Wan Kenobi Showed Darth Vader In His Evil Prime
Working out how old is Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi means examining where it sits in the Star Wars galactic timeline. Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place 10 years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, specifically in the year 9 BBY (BBY denominates “Before The Battle Of Yavin”, which counts down toward the end of Episode 4 or 0BBY, after which years start counting up as ABY). This means that Darth Vader is about 32 years old in Obi-Wan Kenobi. It’s a Vader in his prime, demonstrating the perfect balance of Sith Power and physical prowess while finding a midway point between the aggressive reckless Anakin Obi-Wan left for dead on Mustafar and the slower Vader of the Original Trilogy.
Anakin Skywalker was born in 41 BBY and made his first appearance in the Star Wars universe in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, set in 32 BBY, and he was only nine years old when he met Obi-Wan, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and Padmé Amidala (Natalie Portman). Star Wars then made a jump in Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones, set in 22 BBY, when Anakin was 19 years old. He was 22 years old when he turned to the dark side in 19 BBY, during Revenge of the Sith. Following the Skywalker Saga’s continuity, Vader’s next appearance was in A New Hope, set in 0 BBY, when Vader was 41 years old.
Darth Vader was 44 years old when he revealed to Luke Skywalker that he was his father in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back (3 ABY), and he died at the age of 45 in Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, set a year later. Obi-Wan Kenobi portrayed a younger Darth Vader than the Original Trilogy, showcasing why he was so feared across the galaxy by the time of the Death Star. Vader in his thirties was utterly ruthless and had a sadistic side he didn’t show in Episodes 4-6. When Vader Force Chokes inadequate Imperial officers in his forties, there’s a sense that it’s due to irritation. The 32-year-old Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi massacred a street full of innocent people with The Force for no reason beyond the fact that he could. Nowhere is this better seen than the different approaches to Obi-Wan’s death. By the time of A New Hope, Vader is happy to end his former Master’s life with a quick painless flourish of a Lightsaber – a far cry from the sadistic fire-dragging or live burial that the Vader in his 30s had planned, and much less evil.
Anakin Skywalker Changed A Lot In Ten Years
During the 10 years since Revenge of the Sith, Obi-Wan Kenobi has been in self-imposed exile. He assumed Anakin was dead, but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Anakin Skywalker had an incredibly busy first decade as a Sith Lord. Obi-Wan Kenobi revealed that he’d already become feared throughout the galaxy after only ten years at Palpatine’s side. He’d already set up his Inquisitorius and gathered acolytes like The Grand Inquisitor — fearsome antagonists for various Star Wars heroes in their own right. Even Obi-Wan Kenobi, despite not knowing Anakin is alive, knows of Darth Vader, the Sith Lord carrying out the will of Emperor Palpatine and purging the remaining Jedi from the galaxy. There are 19 years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It’s clear that Anakin put most of the work toward becoming the Darth Vader of the Original Trilogy during the earliest of them. His fall to the Dark Side in Episode III really was total. After slaughtering the younglings, losing to Obi-Wan the first time, and gaining his iconic armor, Vader didn’t enter a period of remorse or slowly ramp up to the planet-destroying Sith Lord of Episode IV. He got to work straight away, and within ten years, his transition was more or less complete.
His growth wasn’t quite done, though, and the events of Obi-Wan Kenobi are key to his journey as Palpatine’s apprentice, chiefly learning to overcome hatred and use it to fuel the greater goals of the Dark Side as illustrated by his decision to let Obi-Wan live. His combat style would also change, but his Obi-Wan Kenobi appearance proves that the difference between ’90s Anakin Skywalker fights and those in the Original Trilogies from the ’70s and ’80s isn’t just the result of GCI advances. Darth Vader in Obi-Wan Kenobi uses a mix of both. There are fewer flips and acrobatics due to Vader’s limbs being clunky cybernetics, but he’s still notably faster than in A New Hope and much more aggressive with his use of The Force. There were glimpses of this in The Empire Strikes Back, but in Obi-Wan Kenobi, Darth Vader uses The Force as a full-on weapon in multiple ways that more closely resemble the Anakin Skywalker of the prequels. However, he’s also fully adapted to the powerful, double-handed strikes of the Original Trilogy’s Darth Vader. Vader’s aging provides a fluid on-screen canon logic to Episodes 4, 5, and 6’s lack of impressive Lightsaber feats that was really down to differences in budget and available technology between the various Star Wars movies.