Ewan McGregor felt like no time had passed when he started working with Hayden Christensen again

He said: "I love Hayden and we spent a lot of time together in Australia when we shot 'Episode II' and 'III'.

"If we weren't shooting together, we were very often in the fight gym together because we had so much fighting to do, so we were always learning that choreography and training.

"My daughter, who's 26 now, was only little but she really loved Hayden and he was very sweet with her.

"Afterwards, Hayden made other movies but he also had a property in Canada where he's a farmer and he raises cattle and sheep.

"I love that sort of duality to his life. It was just lovely to work with him again and it really did feel very natural.

"Looking across at him it was like the last 20 years didn't even happen, like they were just a dream."

But the 51-year-old star was very much aware of his age when it came to the physicality of filming.

He told SFX magazine: "Some of the fight sequences are every bit as intricate as they were in the films.

"And I knew that because I was older, I had to keep up with that so I got really fit before I even started the fight training. Then doing the training keeps you very fit as well."