Obi-Wan Kenobi Actor Ewan McGregor Credits The Mandalorian for Getting Him Back Into Star Wars

There are a lot of exciting Star Wars television projects in the works for Disney+ including [...]

There are a lot of exciting Star Wars television projects in the works for Disney+ including Andor, which is currently in production, and The Book of Boba Fett, which just wrapped production this week. The third season of Star Wars: The Mandalorian is expected to be released next year, and the show's star, Pedro Pascal, recently took part in an "Actors on Actors" interview through Variety with another Star Wars star: Ewan McGregor. McGregor is currently filming the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which will mark his first time playing the role since Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith hit theatres in 2005. During their chat, McGregor revealed to Pascal that The Mandalorian got him back into Star Wars.

"It pulled me back into the Star Wars world, The Mandalorian series, in a way I didn't expect. It blew me away how much I loved it," McGregor shared. Pascal replied, "The first thing that I noticed when I started meeting with Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni was that they were finding a way to totally realize their love of Star Wars, all of our love for Star Wars. And so, creatively to step into something, it just felt so safe. It was so clear to me that they knew what they were doing, starting with their heart being in the right place — and doing it with a lot of love."

"I just came directly from our set on the Kenobi series, and I'm working with so many of your crew from The Mandalorian," McGregor also shared. "In fact, Deborah Chow is directing all of our series, and I know she directed episodes of your first season. I'm having such an amazing time down there with that incredible technology, and not being in front of too much green screen and blue screen."

Pascal added "it's unbelievable," and McGregor mentioned how doing during the Star Wars prequels "literally 90% of the scenes were just on green sets with green floors and green walls, or a blue set with blue sides and blue walls"

"I like it. It's like the beginning of Hollywood," McGregor said of the change in technology since his last time playing Obi-wan. "It's almost like when they had three-sided sets all in a row, and a bunch of guys with windup cameras, and you would just go from one stage to the other, one background to the other. Well, we're doing sort of the same thing, except just the background changes instead of the stage. I'm excited about it because I feel like anything's possible now. That you can invent stuff, interiors or exteriors that don't exist in the real world, and put us into that environment. And also, you don't have to fly ever. I mean, traveling has been great for the first 30 years of my career, but now I just want to stay at home. I just want to drive to work and drive home from work. I want a proper job."

Obi-Wan Kenobi's cast also includes the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader, Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars, and Bonnie Piesse as Beru Lars. Star Wars newcomers include Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Maya Erskine, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie. Deborah Chow, who directed two episodes of Star Wars: The Mandalorian, is set to direct the entire series, which will take place ten years after Star Wars Revenge of the Sith and nine years before the original Star Wars.

Stay tuned for more updates about Obi-Wan Kenobi!

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