Star Wars: Ewan McGregor Confirms Obi-Wan Series Was Originally Planned as a Movie

After 14 years of patiently waiting, Star Wars fans were thrilled to learn earlier this year that Ewan McGregor would be reprising his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new TV series for Disney+, with the actor recently revealing that plans for the continued adventures of the character have been in the works for years, though those initial plans were in the form of a movie. It makes sense that a movie would be the likely medium to tell a Kenobi story, but with the media landscape evolving over the years, Lucasfilm deemed the narrative more appropriate for its upcoming streaming service Disney+.

“It wasn’t always going to be a series, not initially,” McGregor shared with ComingSoon. “When we first started talking about, that wasn’t really in the cards but everything’s changed so much, so quickly. It’s really exciting that it is now. I’m really into the idea to be able to tell the story over several hours instead of just one hit. I think it’s going to be quite cool.”

McGregor debuted as Kenobi in 1999’s Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, with his last portrayal being in 2005’s Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. Virtually since the prequel trilogy’s conclusion, fans have been hoping McGregor would return, with the actor regularly expressing his enthusiasm while deflecting questions about those projects.

Prior to the release of Solo: A Star Wars Story, rumors swirled that the project would be moving forward, though when that film fell short of box office expectations, all spinoff films were seemingly put on hold. It wasn’t until D23 Expo this year that Disney confirmed the project would be happening and McGregor would no longer have to play coy about his return.

“It’s a f-cking massive relief,” McGregor told Men’s Journal about the news being public. “Because for four years, I’ve been having to lie to people about it.”

It’s unclear if this new series, which takes place roughly seven years after Revenge of the Sith, will follow the same storyline that was originally planned with a movie. Regardless, McGregor is looking forward to exploring a new and unseen chapter in Kenobi’s life.

“The most exciting thing before was trying to play a younger Alec Guinness,” McGregor told ComicBook.com. “To study Alec Guinness’ work and his performance in Star Wars and then try and feel like I was the younger version of him. That and the sword fights were pretty good fun to learn, as well. This time, I’m just going to be that much closer to him in age and it will be interesting to do that. The story takes place, you know when the story takes place. So, it’s quite interesting.”

Stay tuned for details on the Obi-Wan Kenobi series. The first live-action Star Wars series, Star Wars: The Mandalorian, premieres on Disney+ on November 12th.

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