Ewan McGregor Pitched a Obi-Wan Kenobi and Yoda Story To Dave Filoni
Ewan McGregor is ready to pick up the lightsaber again, and he’s already throwing some pretty fun ideas around for where Obi-Wan Kenobi could go next.
One involves tracking down Yoda after the Jedi are scattered across the galaxy. The other is considerably stranger and would bring Obi-Wan together with Hera Syndulla, played by McGregor’s real-life wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
While speaking at the Variety Lounge during the Edinburgh International Film Festival, McGregor talked about his continued interest in returning to Star Wars as Obi-Wan following his 2022 Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi.
McGregor has apparently thought about it enough that he even brought some ideas to Dave Filoni while the Lucasfilm filmmaker was working on Ahsoka with Mary Elizabeth Winstead.
One possibility would explore what Obi-Wan was doing after the devastating events of Revenge of the Sith, particularly his connection to Yoda after the surviving Jedi went into hiding.
“It was very casual, but I said there’s got to be something because Yoda’s somewhere else. After the end of ‘Episode III’, when we all go to the four or five corners of the galaxy — or however many corners it’s got! — I won’t have been in touch with him. But he’s out there. So I think there could be a story there where I’m trying to reach out to him.”
That actually sounds like a solid foundation for another Obi-Wan story. Yoda spent his exile on Dagobah while Obi-Wan eventually settled on Tatooine to watch over Luke Skywalker, leaving plenty of unexplored years between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
A story about Obi-Wan attempting to find Yoda could also dig deeper into the surviving Jedi dealing with the destruction of their Order and the rise of the Empire. It wouldn’t necessarily require another giant confrontation with Darth Vader, either, which could give a second Obi-Wan project room to explore something different.
Then there’s McGregor’s other idea, which is much more ridiculous, but also pretty amusing. After Winstead was cast as New Republic General Hera Syndulla in Ahsoka, McGregor started imagining a way their Star Wars characters might cross paths.
“I got very excited when Mary started working on Ahsoka. I thought, maybe this is the big love story — Obi-Wan and Hera,” he said.
There’s just one rather enormous problem with that pitch. Obi-Wan and Hera belong to very different periods of the Star Wars timeline. McGregor jokingly argued that “time doesn’t really mean anything” in the various “multiverses” of Star Wars, while also acknowledging that Kenobi and Hera “were in different time frames.”
Obi-Wan and Hera probably aren’t getting their sweeping galactic romance anytime soon. Still, you can’t blame McGregor for trying to figure out a way to work with his wife in Star Wars.
Whether Lucasfilm actually has another Obi-Wan project planned remains uncertain. McGregor, however, is completely game for another movie or series if Lucasfilm comes calling.
“I enjoyed doing the series very much… and would be happy to do it again. I like playing him — he’s a really good character to play.”
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series left the character at a point where he was beginning to emerge from the guilt and trauma that had consumed him following Anakin Skywalker’s fall. Another adventure could follow a more recognizable version of the Jedi Master as he continues toward the man audiences eventually meet in A New Hope.
Trying to reconnect with Yoda feels like the best idea that he’s come up with as it has the most potential for a meaningful continuation of Kenobi’s story.
Regardless, it would be great to see Lucasfilm find the right story to bring him back. There are years of Obi-Wan’s life that remain largely unexplored on screen, and a search for Yoda could be a pretty cool place to start.