Ewan McGregor is More Excited To Play Obi-Wan Kenobi Now Than He Was For The STAR WARS Prequels
Ewan McGregor is excited to step back into the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi again for the upcoming Disney+ Star Wars series that’s currently in development. In fact, he’s more excited to play the character now than he was when he played him in the prequel trilogy.
During a segment on Eddie Izzard’s charity marathon stream (via Reddit), McGregor shared his enthusiasm about reprising his role as the Jedi Master, saying:
"It’ll just be great to [play Obi-Wan] again. I did my last one in 2003, and it’s such a long time ago. The idea of doing it again is more exciting even than it was then, I think. I’m thrilled to get a chance to play him again."
McGregor also addressed how filmmaking technology has progressed since the prequels, saying:
"It’ll be interesting to do. Probably not so much blue screen and green screen, which I always find quite tedious to spend week after week in a blue environment or a green environment. But this should certainly be much more interesting for us."
The Obi-Wan series will be shot using the same Stagecraft technology that the filmmakers on The Mandalorian have utilized. The series will also see the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, and the project is set to start shooting very shortly, according to McGregor:
"We start making it in the late Spring, and we’re going to be shooting it here in L.A. It’s so funny, every week there’s a new report… we were meant to be making it in Boston, but we’re not, we’re shooting it in L.A.”
Deborah Chow (Better Call Saul, American Gods, The Mandalorian) will direct the series as well as serve as showrunner, with Hossein Amini (Drive, McMafia) and Joby Harold (John Wick 3, Awake, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) writing.
There have been some rumored details on the story that the series might tell, and that the story is said to primarily revolve around Darth Vader’s hunt for his former Master, Obi-Wan. This has yet to be confirmed, but it would be a cool story to tell!
Chow previously talked about working on the series, saying:
"It's definitely going to be different, just in terms of the sheer workload, obviously, of doing the whole thing. But in some ways, I'm going to miss having a team, and having people who are there to bounce ideas off of. But then obviously the flip side is, it is nice to have a coherent voice and know what you're doing from beginning to end."
Kathleen Kennedy will produce alongside Jason D. McGatlinn, Tracey Seaward, and John Swartz. I can’t wait to see what story this series ends up telling!