Ewan McGregor says the new Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi came about because he kept saying on social media that he wanted to reprise the iconic role he played in the Star Wars prequel movies.
He explained that the series developed out of press junkets where he was constantly asked if he’d ever like to return to Trainspotting and Star Wars. The answers were in the affirmative.
He told Collider: “And then, Disney just asked me to come in one day for a meeting because they kept seeing on social media that I was saying that I would like to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again. It looked like I was touting for work at Disney’s door like, ‘Could you cast me?’
“So, they got me in and asked me if I meant it and I said, ‘Yeah, I would love to play him again. I think there’s got to be a good story between Episode III and Episode IV.’ That’s definitely what we found, after a lengthy process of exploring some different storylines. I think we’ve ended up with a really brilliant story and one that will satisfy the fans, sitting between those two episodes.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi streams on Disney+ from Friday, May 27, and connects the dots between the films Ewan played as a warrior hero and the original films in which Obi-Wan has become the Jedi Master, famously played by Sir Alec Guinness.
It is also a chance for the 51-year-old Scottish star to actually enjoy being in the Star Wars universe, because his films were not actually well received on release in the early 2000s.
He explained that he was a super-fan when the first film, A New Hope, came out in 1977, but it was realising that the children who had grown up with his Star Wars films actually loved them that inspired him to make the new series.
“The Star Wars fans are amazingly passionate. They’re probably some of the strongest fans in the world, for anything. And so, to be able to give them something like this, and to make the Obi-Wan series, which it seems that there’s been a hunger for, for some long time, is really exciting.”
