Speaking to EW, Christensen called his return to the role of Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker “a natural continuation of your journey with the character. And that was very meaningful for me.” By “your journey” he clearly means the journey of us, the audience. But the phrasing is interesting in that he’s talking about taking Vader forward from the character we left in Revenge of the Sith, rather than thinking about Vader retroactively from the classic trilogy. In other words, Christensen is playing post-prequel Vader, not pre-A New Hope Vader.