Ewan McGregor Teases Possible Luke Skywalker Appearance in New ‘Obi-Wan’ Series
First he pops up in the ending of The Mandalorian and now he’s coming to Obi-Wan? Luke Skywalker gets around. (Maybe.)
Ewan McGregor, star of the new Obi-Wan series coming to Disney+, said the Mandalorian appearance might not be the only time we see a young Luke Skywalker on the streaming service. He, along with Hayden Christensen are set to reprise their roles as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, aka Darth Vader. He’s not saying yes definitely to an appearance by the young Jedi, but he’s definitely not ruling it out either.
Talking to The Hollywood Reporter, McGregor said that a Luke Skywalker appearance was “very possible,” which was immediately qualified with an “I don’t know.” Of course, he probably does know but spoilers are verboten in the Star Wars world. The timing of the Obi-Wan series is around ten years after Anakin’s turn into Darth Vader in Revenge of the Sith but also years before Luke’s journey of becoming a Jedi in A New Hope, so a Skywalker appearance definitely fits.
It wasn’t lost on McGregor that the trilogy of prequels weren’t exactly fan favorites. He admits it “was hard they didn’t get well received. That was quite difficult. They were universally not very much liked.” McGregor himself wasn’t a fan of all the CGI in the prequels, used because Lucas “loves technology and loves pushing into that realm. He wanted more and more control over what we see in the background.”
McGregor shared his frustration with acting in a void; Revenge Of The Sith was shot mostly on bluescreen instead of the detailed sets like those used in the original trilogy. “After three or four months of that, it just gets really tedious—especially when the scenes are… I don’t want to be rude, but it’s not Shakespeare,” he said. “There’s not something to dig into in the dialogue that can satisfy you when there’s no environment there. It was quite hard to do.”
With the disappointment in the prequels forgiven, if not forgotten by fans, and with shows like Clone Wars expanding the depth of the character, the time is right for the return of McGregor as Obi-Wan now. But was that the plan all along? Before the Obi-Wan show was announced, whenever he heard speculation about him returning to the part, the actor had to keep quiet. “I’d see stuff on social media like, ‘They better cast Ewan as Obi-Wan,’ and I wasn’t able to say anything,” he says. “But it was pretty humiliating to think that [Disney] might be thinking about casting someone else.”
Production-wise, the new series has been a brand new experience for McGregor, in sharp contrast to how Lucas shot the prequels. Gone are the bluescreens in favor of more actor-friendly tech. The series will feel “so much more real,” he promises, because of StageCraft, which The Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau utilized for his Star Wars series.
“They project [the virtual backgrounds] onto this massive LED screen,” he explains. “So if you’re in a desert, you’re standing in the middle of a desert. If you’re in the snow, you’re surrounded by snow. And if you’re in a cockpit of a starfighter, you’re in space. It’s going to feel so much more real.”
Deborah Chow is set to direct the series, which will also star Kumail Nanjiani and Indira Varma, along with Rupert Friend and Moses Ingram. Production on Obi-Wan was set to begin this month, with the show debuting some time in 2022.