A video of Ewan McGregor unabashedly professing his love for making Star Wars garners attention online. The veteran actor is finally confirmed to reprise his role as Obi Wan Kenobi in his very own Disney+ series - a scenario many had been clamoring for since the franchise renaissance began back in 2015. And now that it’s officially in the cards, fans are nothing but thrilled, as is McGregor, based on said video.
Debuting as the iconic Jedi Master in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, McGregor stepped into the character first popularized by Sir Alec Guinness in the original Star Wars trilogy. While he had big shoes to fill, the actor brilliantly portrayed the younger version of the character, putting his own stamp on it but also building on what his predecessor did. Because of this, he became one of the most beloved actors from the franchise, despite the prequel trilogy not getting the same critical acclaim as the first batch of films. Almost two decades since his last outing as Obi Wan, McGregor is more than ready to return to the space opera, which shouldn’t be surprising given his previous comments about working on Star Wars.
Twitter account Memo shared a snippet of McGregor on the set of The Phantom Menace from the filming of the climactic battle between Darth Maul (Ray Parks) and Qui Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi Wan. It’s nothing fans haven’t seen before, but it’s the actor’s enthusiasm for playing the part that’s currently garnering much attention, especially when he declares: “‘Do you want to do a Star Wars they said’, I said too fucking right” before skipping away from the frame. Watch the clip below:
While fans haven’t McGregor as Kenobi for a while now, that doesn’t mean that the public hasn’t had their fair share of narrative for the character in recent years. He was a significant part of the animated prequel Star Wars: The Clone Wars - the seventh and final season of which debuts on Disney+ in February 2020. Aside from that, fans also got a snippet of the beloved Jedi Master in Star Wars Rebels, which revealed his eventual rematch with Darth Maul while he was secretly keeping an eye on young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine. There were rumbles about a potential prequel spi-off for the character, but nothing came out of it following Lucasfilm’s evaluation of their Anthology series after Solo: A Star Wars Story’s underwhelming box office performance.
Prior to the announcement that McGregor is indeed returning for an Obi Wan Kenobi Disney+ series, news that the actor was involved in the franchise caught wind again. At that point, however, it was more plausible than ever considering the approaching D23 Expo, which many thought was the perfect place to announce the project. The actor didn’t shy away from expressing his interest in stepping back into his old role years before it materialized, as he was regularly bombarded with questions about the possibility, so it’s safe to say it wasn’t difficult for Lucasfilm to recruit him for this new project. With McGregor officially playing his Star Wars character again in his own show, the question now is whether or not he’ll make some kind of cameo in JJ Abrams’ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.
More: Every Upcoming Star Wars Movie & Release Date
Source: Lucasfilm (via Memo)
- Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker Release Date: 2019-12-20
