Obi-Wan Kenobi Actor Ewan McGregor Says THE MANDALORIAN Pulled Him Back Into STAR WARS
Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor recently sat down with The Mandalorian star Pedro Pascal for Variety’s “Actors on Actors” interview and when they talked, obviously Star Wars is going to come up in the conversation!
McGregor is currently shooting the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and when talking about coming back to the franchise to reprise his role, he credits The Mandalorian for pulling him back into the franchise, saying, "It pulled me back into the Star Wars world, The Mandalorian series, in a way I didn’t expect. It blew me away how much I loved it.”
Pascal replied, "The first thing that I noticed when I started meeting with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni was that they were finding a way to totally realize their love of Star Wars, all of our love for Star Wars. And so, creatively to step into something, it just felt so safe. It was so clear to me that they knew what they were doing, starting with their heart being in the right place — and doing it with a lot of love."
McGregor went on to talk about his experience shooting Obi-Wan Kenobi, saying, “I just came directly from our set on the Kenobi series, and I’m working with so many of your crew from The Mandalorian. In fact, Deborah Chow is directing all of our series, and I know she directed episodes of your first season. I’m having such an amazing time down there with that incredible technology, and not being in front of too much green screen and blue screen."
McGregor went on to talk about shooting during the Star Wars prequels, saying, "literally 90% of the scenes were just on green sets with green floors and green walls, or a blue set with blue sides and blue walls" When talking about the change in technology, he added, "I like it. It’s like the beginning of Hollywood. It’s almost like when they had three-sided sets all in a row, and a bunch of guys with windup cameras, and you would just go from one stage to the other, one background to the other. Well, we’re doing sort of the same thing, except just the background changes instead of the stage. I’m excited about it because I feel like anything’s possible now. That you can invent stuff, interiors or exteriors that don’t exist in the real world, and put us into that environment. And also, you don’t have to fly ever. I mean, traveling has been great for the first 30 years of my career, but now I just want to stay at home. I just want to drive to work and drive home from work. I want a proper job."
The story for the Kenobi series begins 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader.
Obi-Wan Kenobi also stars Hayden Christensen, who is also set to return as Darth Vader. The series also stars Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse as Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru. The rest of the cast includes Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.
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.