Star Wars: Obi-Wan Kenobi Star Weighs In on Returning to Franchise

Joel Edgerton breaks down the history of Uncle Owen in Star Wars.

By Jamie Jirak

Obi-Wan Kenobi was released on Disney+ in 2022, and the series saw Ewan McGregor returning to the titular role. McGregor wasn't the only actor from the Star Wars prequels to appear in the series. In addition to Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader and Jimmy Smits as Bail Organa, the show also saw the return of Joel Edgerton as Owen Lars. Edgerton made his franchise debut in Star Wars: Attack of the Clones as the character (who was originally played by Phil Brown in Star Wars: A New Hope) before making another small appearance in Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith. In a new interview with Inverse to promote Dark Matter, Edgerton talked about returning to the role in 2022 and addressed the possibility of playing Owen once again. 

"I've always joked that I'm the most boring character in Star Wars history," Edgerton shared. "Imagine how much of a snooze fest it could possibly be if they just made a standalone series about Uncle Owen," Edgerton added with a big smile. "It'd be more like a nature documentary as he goes out and farms moisture."

"It was the first thing that I was coming back to do after this long process of the beginning of the lockdowns," Edgerton added about his Obi-Wan Kenobi experience. "I felt happy being on set. I felt really happy being back in the presence of Ewan and that whole world."

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(Photo:

Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

- Lucasfilm)

"My friends and I are Star Wars fans, and we think about the possibilities of what was true and what was false," Edgerton said about Uncle Owen's issues with Obi-Wan in the series. "Why was Owen so against Obi-Wan in the first movie [A New Hope]? Something went down, you know?"

"Owen was hiding the fact that he participated in things that he didn't really want to share with Luke," he continued. "I thought there were possibilities there to explore and I loved the opportunity to add an extra dimension of sorts to Uncle Owen."

"Everyone always saw Uncle Owen as just the uncle that won't let Luke do something – which he is – but to understand why and to see his fierce protectiveness, I think is a nice way of humanizing him even more," Edgerton explained. "That was my mission. I was like, if I'm going to come back, I want to do something that doesn't disrupt the flow of the way that the audience views that world and the characters, but I want to participate in a way that feels good. So I was really happy with the outcome."

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"Would I do more? I'd love to do more if it was really cool," he added. "The reunion was great, but also, and I've said this before, it was a reminder for me that Star Wars gave me so much."

Stay tuned for more updates about Star Wars. 

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