Hello there! Ewan McGregor, as you might have heard, is reprising his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi for a limited series run on Disney’s shiny new streaming service — which goes live on November 12 — Disney+. McGregor endeared himself to Star Wars fans by playing the role of Kenobi in the Prequel Series, movies, the actor says, he hasn’t re-watched since their theatrical debut in the 90s because “they were political.”
Anyway, after Disney acquired Lucasfilm and promised to make Star Wars standalone films like Rogue One and Solo: A Star Wars Story, fans began clamoring for the House of Mouse to make an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie to fill in the gaps between Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and Episode IV: A New Hope — where Sir Alec Guinness played the character for the first time on the big screen in 1977.
Well, it looks as if we’re going to get our wish about the timeline in the Kenobi, Disney+ live-action show, because according to McGregor, we’ll see how the Jedi Master watched over young Luke Skywalker on Tatooine, becoming the hermit Old Ben in the process.
“The storyline sits between Episode III and Episode IV,” McGregor told Men’s Health. “he Jedi Order was falling apart. It will be interesting to take a character we know in a way and show him—Well, his arc will be quite interesting, I think, dealing with that the fact that all the Jedi were slaughtered with the end of Episode III. It’s quite something to get over.”
Apparently, McGregor has known for a few years now, that Disney had plans to bring him back to that galaxy far, far away. “It’s a f***ing massive relief,” he said. “Because for four years, I’ve been having to lie to people about it.” Well, someone’s good at keeping secrets.
The Kenobi series will begin filming in the summer of 2020 and will consist of six, one-hour long episodes, and McGregor wants to “get closer and closer to how Obi-Wan felt while Alec Guinness was playing him.”
"I feel like I’m grayer and nearer him in age, so it’ll be easier to do that"
Next to Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker (I know, I know, he’s not everyone’s favorite), McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi is one of my all-time Star Wars favorites, and I can’t wait to see how he’s portrayed in the Disney+ series.
Heck, I’d pay good money right now to see him and Ray Park’s Maul go at each other one last time in live-action, kind of like it was shown on Star Wars Rebels. It would be a great tie-in to Maul’s appearance in Solo: A Star Wars Story, as that character’s story-arc is brought to a close forever.
One can only hope.
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