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The Obi-Wan Kenobi show hired “mega Star Wars fans” as extras

By Dan Selcke

ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 30: Cosplayers Matt Greenberg as a Tusken Raider (L) and Kirk Starr as Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Star Wars attend Fandom Invasion at California Center for the Arts, Escondido on October 30, 2021 in Escondido, California. Fandom Invasion is a new pop culture convention presented by the Science Fiction Coalition, celebrating all science fiction and pop culture fandoms. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images)
ESCONDIDO, CALIFORNIA - OCTOBER 30: Cosplayers Matt Greenberg as a Tusken Raider (L) and Kirk Starr as Obi-Wan Kenobi from "Star Wars attend Fandom Invasion at California Center for the Arts, Escondido on October 30, 2021 in Escondido, California. Fandom Invasion is a new pop culture convention presented by the Science Fiction Coalition, celebrating all science fiction and pop culture fandoms. (Photo by Daniel Knighton/Getty Images) /
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Being an extra can be a thankless job. It’s a lot of milling around in uncomfortable outfits for hours on end only to appear in the background of a shot without a single line to your name. But there are some franchises that have build-in fanbases with more than enough enthusiasm to grit and bear it, and fanbases don’t come much more enthusiastic than Star Wars.

To that end, Disney has apparently hired Star Wars fans as extras on its upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which features Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen back as Obi-Wan and Darth Vader. This is according to Pen15 creator Maya Erskine, who told Variety that she has a “speck” of a role in the show. “The extras were incredible on the set, and a lot of them were mega Star Wars fans,” Erskine said. “One guy, he was so nice and he lifted up his sleeves and had Star Wars tattoos over his whole body. And they build droids. There are lot of Star Wars fans that build droids, and then the production companies will rent [them] from the fans.”

Imagine the money Disney must save on crew members that way! “I got to bring my baby to set,” Erskine continued. “I wanted to wrap him in a shawl and have him pass as an extra in Star Wars.”

The cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi is “incredible”

Unfortunately, that’s about all that Erskine could give away about the show. “Deborah Chow is an amazing director,” she said. “The cast was incredible. It was so fun to do.”

"My brother, who’s a mega fan, was like, ‘If you don’t take this, I will disown you. You have to be part of this universe.’"

And now she is. The Obi-Wan Kenobi show doesn’t have a release date yet but expect it on Disney+ sometime in 2022.

See (a tiny bit of) new footage from House of the Dragon. dark. Next

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