A new book has revealed that fallen Jedi Anakin Skywalker was mooted to feature in JJ Abrams’s blockbuster, as a Lucasfilm producer lets slip the film might have been titled Shadow of the Empire

The new Star Wars movie, The Force Awakens, might once have featured Canadian actor Hayden Christensen reprising his much-maligned turn as fallen Jedi knight Anakin Skywalker, according to newly revealed concept art.

The image of Christensen as Skywalker has emerged in a new book titled The Art of Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Artist Iain McCaig tells author Phil Szostak he imagined Anakin returning from beyond the grave to haunt his descendants.

Indy Film (@TheIndyFilm) How Hayden Christensen's Anakin was going to return in The Force Awakens https://t.co/M0UXtAy9Lb #StarWars pic.twitter.com/6xLQdCtzeF

“‘When you light a candle, you also cast a shadow.’ That inspired me to propose, for the first time, that Anakin’s ghost could come back,” says McCaig. “If we see Anakin Skywalker, because he does flow back and forth between Darth Vader and Anakin, let’s see him as a character with a dark and light side. The reason Luke is this whole new entity is because he was the first to acknowledge his own dark side — that it was not separate from him.”

Week in geek's top five science-fiction and fantasy films of 2015 Read more

The concept art depicts a disfigured version of Anakin who resembles Christensen. If McCaig’s idea had made it to the final shoot, such a casting would have represented an unlikely return to Star Wars for the Canadian actor. Now 34, Christensen was the recipient of double Razzie awards for worst supporting actor in 2002 and 2005 for his turns in Star Wars prequels Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith. He has been largely absent from notable big screen offerings in the past four years, and appeared most recently in the Christian film 90 Minutes to Heaven. Disney and Abrams have studiously avoided making any links between the unpopular trilogy released in cinemas between 1999 and 2005 and The Force Awakens, which might explain why the idea of a returning Christensen failed to make it to production.

In related news, it has emerged that The Force Awakens was once intended to be titled Shadow of the Empire. Lucasfilm creative exec Pablo Hidalgo revealed the movie title, borrowed almost wholesale from 1996 Star Wars novel and video game Shadows of the Empire, in a series of tweets.