7 Worst Things That Happened To Star Wars In 2022

Keeping with the theme of character returns that unfortunately failed to deliver in the end, alongside Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan Kenobi making a triumphant return to the Star Wars stage, Hayden Christensen's Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader was also back along for the post-Prequels ride.

Yet, with much of the attention heading into Disney+'s Kenobi spin-off understandably being on the live-action return of the biggest bad in the galaxy, expectations were rather high.

Outside of a deliciously merciless wander through a village during Part III, though, Vader felt mostly wasted throughout the show and a bit under-developed in comparison to his former Master, despite being presented as arguably the second-billed character coming in.

Some of his decisions during the spin-off were also quite baffling, with the apparently ruthless Dark Lord of the Sith simply refusing to definitively kill off Reva and Kenobi whenever he had the chance to at various points in the tale.

Admittedly, Obi-Wan and a broken-masked Vader's final exchange post anti-climactic rematch of the century did provide a brief glimmer of brilliance in the form of a heart-breaking final nail in Anakin's coffin. But for the most part, Vader felt like little more than a two-dimensional force during his obsessive attempts to hunt down his former master.

And away from the odd emotionally-charged exchange with Kenobi, he was largely made to look like a needless shiny accessory being used to shamelessly stir up more interest in a project that ultimately struggled to justify its own existence.