Star Wars: Hayden Christensen in BRILLIANT Anakin Skywalker throwback to prequel moment

The actor played the character in the Star Wars prequels Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, and not without backlash and criticism.

The quality of the prequel trilogy – which began with The Phantom Menace in 1999 – has been often debated amongst fans, with one moment in Attack of the Clones being particularly mocked and maligned.

Anakin turns to Padme Amidala (Natalie Portman) at one point and says: “I don’t like sand!

“It’s course and rough and irritating. It gets everywhere.”

That line went down amongst fans as a particularly poor moment in the script, sparking many a meme – but it seems Christensen can laugh about it now.

He appeared at Rhode Island Comic Con  over the weekend, and posed for a meet-and-greet photo with one fan – who was holding a bag of sand.

User HARDonE captioned it: “Drmeme Come True.”

When one person responded to the picture with doubts over just how funny Christensen would have found the photo, the poster assured: “He was really cool in person.”

The picture has been upvoted by 91% of voters.

Christensen certainly seems to be embracing the Star Wars fandom more as the years go by, and perhaps as more and more people grow to have affection for the prequels.

Anakin is widely rumoured to be appearing in the upcoming Star Wars: Episode 9, though this has not been confirmed.

Episode 9 will close out the entire Skywalker saga, and also finish the sequel trilogy – which began with 2015’s The Force Awakens and continued last year with The Last Jedi.

Christensen has quietened his acting career in recent years but has made something of a comeback recently: this year he has starred with Emma Roberts in the romantic comedy Little Italy, as well as The Last Man.

He has a daughter, Briar Rose, with actress Rachel Bilson – with whom he starred in the 2008 movie Jumper. The pair split last year.

Star Wars 9 is out in late 2019.