Obi-Wan Star Ewan McGregor Reveals the Most Satisfying Part of the Star Wars Prequels

Star Wars prequel trilogy star Ewan McGregor, who next reprises his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in an untitled live-action series coming to Disney+, says the most “satisfying” thing about the George Lucas-directed trilogy was the challenge of portraying the younger version of a character first established by original trilogy star Alec Guinness, who played the sage mentor to budding Jedi Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill). When McGregor next returns to a galaxy far, far away, it’ll be as an actor 15 years older and closer in age to Guinness’ at the time of Star Wars: A New Hope.

“The most satisfying thing about those films, other than some of the fight sequences — which were amazing to do — was the study of Alec Guinness and trying to be believably him as a younger man. As an acting challenge, that was the most satisfying thing about those movies,” McGregor said on Conan when promoting Doctor Sleep. “And so now, that’s the same, except I’m just closer to the age he was when he played that film. So it’ll be interesting to play him now. And also, it being post — plot wise, [after] the three films that I made already — it’s after that, obviously. So there’s a bit of story, plot there.”

Following confirmation of the long-rumored series in August, McGregor says he’s relieved he no longer has to lie about a series that has been in development since 2015.

“It’s exciting because I can finally say that I’m doing it. It’s been years of pretending I don’t know,” he said. “Because I get asked all the time, every time I do an interview, it always comes up. ‘Would you do it again?’ And I had to just lie. The studios and the franchises, they want to keep everything a secret, and I understand that. But it comes down to me in a situation where I’m having to actually lie to people and say, ‘Well, I don’t know, I would be up for it if they ever want to do it.’”

McGregor continued, “I’ve been talking about it for a long time, but it started looking like I’m sort of trying to tout for the job [laughs]. Like I was trying to get the job as Obi-Wan again at Disney’s door. ‘Hello sir, I’m available!’”

The series, originally developed as a spinoff movie like young Han Solo prequel Solo: A Star Wars Story, will instead be the third live-action Star Wars series to debut on the Disney+ streaming service following the Jon Favreau-created The Mandalorian and the Rogue One spinoff centered around Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor.

Disney has yet to announce a release date for Obi-Wan.