Ewan McGregor Reminisces On Prequels

Time has a funny effect on things. Things come out and at the time of release and people hate them or ignore them. 10-15 years later they become the most beloved of creations. Star Trek, The Princess Bride, The Dark Crystal and so many more. Other shows you love either as a child or for as long as they are new, but they quickly tire and are forgotten. Either that or you go back to watch it later and you wonder how on earth was this ever popular? For me a great example is the original Voltron. It launched an era, but in hindsight it did not age well. Recently, Ewan McGregor reminisced about the prequels and their reception.

McGregor Reminisces – You Can’t Recreate the Past

McGregor belongs to the generation that grew up with the original trilogy as a child. Like so many of us he talked about what the originals meant to us. They fed his determination to be a part of the the prequels, and it helped his cousin played Wedge Antilles. Here is what Ewan said about the comparison:

Our films weren’t much liked when they came out, by my generation who loved the first ones. I think people of our generation wanted to feel the way they’d felt when they saw those first three movies when they were kids, and George [Lucas] wanted to take our ones in a different direction, he had a different idea. It was tricky at the time, I remember. But now, all these years later, I’m really aware of what our films meant to the generation they were made for, the children of that time. They really like them. I’ve met people who, they mean a lot to them, those films, more so than the original three, and I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’

Empire Magazine

McGregor hits a key point. What you love as a kid rarely survives to your adult years. Grown ups and kids like different things after all. While the original trilogy fanbase hated Jar Jar with a passion, the kids being hooked for the first time loved him.

McGregor Reminisces – There Is Nothing There!

McGregor has been excited to return to Star Wars to tell the story of Kenobi’s hermit years. He may not have campaigned for it ala – Ryan Reynolds and Deadpool, but he always remained eager to pick up the lightsaber once more. One reason he stated he wished to come back related to the freedom creators would possess that they lacked in the prequel era. Lucas created the digital technology as they went, which made things quite cumbersome. Ewan had this to say about the burgeoning technology:

The first three [Star Wars films] I did were really at the very beginning of digital photography. We had a camera with an umbilical cord to a tent, it was like back to the beginning of movies where the camera didn’t move very much because there was so much hardware attached to it. Now we’re going to be able to really create stuff without swathes of green-screen and blue-screen, which becomes very tedious for the actor.

Ewan McGregor

People should check out the behind the scenes documentaries on Disney+ about The Mandalorian to see how far special effects have advanced since the prequels.

In today’s world the prequels are acknowledged for their short comings, but accepted for what they are. In ten years could the same be said for the sequels?