Obi-Wan Kenobi brings back Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen to the Star Wars universe. Disney held a press conference to promote the new show, which releases on May 27th, 2022 on Disney+. To start off the panel, Ewan McGregor talked about how the two things that he was always asked were “When are you doing Trainspotting 2?” and “When will you return to play Obi-Wan again?”
Well, now both of those things have happened, so we can all leave Ewan McGregor alone. His return to the character of Obi-Wan is a joyous occasion for him and fans of the Star Wars series. He talked a lot about how the reception of the Prequels was not great but has generally gotten much more favorable as time has passed. This show is a celebration of the character but also furthers his story along in a meaningful way.
Also included on the panel were Director Deborah Chow and Moses Ingram, who plays Reva on the show. Chow said that it’s really the ability to go in-depth into a character like Kenobi that drew her to the show. Ingram added that the script felt “dangerous”.
Some Revelations From The Conference
Ewan did let some behind-the-scenes information from Attack of the Clones slip when he was talking about the change in digital cameras from back then to now. During the production of Episode Two, they had two digital cameras that took ages to change lenses and couldn’t really zoom in. They were also attached by what he called “umbilical cords” to a power supply in the corner of the studio. Turns out, the power supply and cameras would hum at the same frequency as the human voice, so all the dialogue recorded for Episode Two was ruined and had to be re-done after the fact.
The stunt coordinator and his crew worked on the fight scenes by studying the fights from the Prequel movies to get them down perfectly. Ewan mentioned Alec Guinness‘s performance from the original trilogy as the biggest influence on his style of Obi-Wan in this series and the Prequel movies. Everything he did, he passed through the filter of Alec Guinness to make sure it was right. He also said that the hardest thing to bring back wasn’t the physical style or fighting, but the voice of Obi-Wan.
Finally, Deborah Chow credited Logan and Joker as influences on the film. She credited how they take a singular character and build out the narrative for them.
Obi-Wan Kenobi releases its first two episodes on Disney+ on May 27th, 2022, with new episodes following each week.
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