Star Wars: Ewan McGregor Holding Out Hope to Play Obi-Wan Kenobi Again

Ewan McGregor feels there are more stories to tell for the beloved Jedi Master.

By Nicole Drum

It's been two years since Star Wars fans saw Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Disney+ series of the same name, but the actor is hopeful that the six-episode series won't be the last time he gets to bring the iconic Jedi Master to life on screen. Speaking with Variety, McGregor revisited his time playing the beloved character — which he first took on 25 years ago for Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace — and revealed that he's not done with Obi-Wan just yet. McGregor says he thinks there are more stories to tell before the timeline catches up with Alec Guinness' portrayal in Star Wars: A New Hope.

"I really do hope we get a chance to do another one," McGregor said. "Between where we ended off in the series and when Alec Guinness comes on screen with Luke Skywalker, I think there's another few stories to tell in there."

McGregor's Star Wars co-star Hayden Christensen is also all for the actor returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi, both if it means he'd get to work with him again and just to see him take on the role once more from a fan's perspective.

"If it means that I got to do more with Ewan, then that's a no-brainer, but I really hope that he continues with the character," Christensen said. "Just as a fan, it's so exciting to get to watch him play Obi-Wan — he's just so good at it."

McGregor has previously shared his desire to return as Obi-Wan as well. Earlier this year, the actor opened up about how he hadn't heard anything about future seasons of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, but that he loves the role and wanted to take it on again, noting that he had "a few years yet" before he caught up to Guinness' age in A New Hope.

"The truth is I've talked about having to cover for doing the Obi-Wan season for years, I had to lie about that and I'm not lying about this now," McGregor said at the time. "I don't know. There's been no phone call to me from Lucasfilm, or Disney saying, 'Let's do another one.' Obi-Wan was made as a limited series and it's out and people like it, which I'm very, very pleased about. I love doing it. I hope we get a chance to do another one and I'm sure we will. I'm pretty sure, you know, I've got a few years yet before I'm the same age as Alec Guinness was in A New Hope. So, there's time to tell more stories in there."

Of course, while the desire is there from McGregor, there hasn't been much in the way of chatter about more Obi-Wan Kenobi or even an appearance by the character in other Star Wars projects but that doesn't mean it isn't possible. The Andor series is set within the same general time frame of Obi-Wan Kenobi, which could arguably create a space for, if not an actual appearance but paths to future stories. A second season of Andor is itself expected to arrive in 2025. It isn't to say that there isn't still a chance for another round of Obi-Wan, either. While the series has been billed as a limited series, in 2023 series director Deborah Chow said that she and McGregor had discussed how a follow-up to Obi-Wan could work.

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"You always think you're going to end a series like this in some magnificent way, but instead you end up in a parking lot with second unit and hardly anybody there," Chow said at the time. "It's always so anticlimactic, but as Ewan and I finished our very last shot on second unit and I was literally taking off my headphones, he was already pitching me ideas for season two. There's another 10 years with plenty of stories, and I don't think it's off the board. It is a 'never say never' situation, but we really did conceive this to be a limited series."

Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming on Disney+.

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