Ewan McGregor Almost Said No To Obi-Wan Kenobi Series

But now he's got the high ground...

Ewan McGregor Almost Said No To Obi-Wan Kenobi Series

Image Credit: Disney

Ewan McGregor reprised his role from the Star Wars prequels for the mini-series Obi-Wan Kenobi – which obviously delighted many fans. But the actor almost said ‘no’ to playing the titular character…


Fans and critics are both loving the mini-series Obi-Wan Kenobi which debuted on Disney+ just three weeks ago. Many actors from the Star Wars prequel trilogy came back to reprise their roles including Golden Globe and Emmy-winning actor Ewan McGregor.

McGregor played Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, Episode II – Attack of the Clones and Episode III – Revenge of the Sith, and is now playing Obi-Wan again – but the actor seriously considered turning down the role.

The Scotsman revealed in an interview with Total Film magazine that he was hesitant to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again for the mini-series because when filming the prequel Star Wars films, McGregor found the high use of green screens difficult.

“I found it very hard to make those films. It was lots of green screen and blue screen. By the time we did Episode III, it was almost all entirely green screen.”

Ewan McGregor

McGregor also admitted he was tentative about starring in Obi-Wan Kenobi because Episodes I-III were highly criticised.

“And also, at the time, they weren’t received very well. Every time they were released, they were being hammered. And that didn’t feel very good.”

Ewan McGregor

However, the Scottish actor went on to say he eventually decided to play Obi-Wan Kenobi once more because he simply wanted to – a similar thing he experienced when he was deciding whether to do the Trainspotting sequel.

“I started thinking, ‘I want to do [T2 Trainspotting]. Why wouldn’t you?’ and the same thing happened with Obi-Wan…”

Ewan McGregor

Thank goodness McGregor decided to come back for Obi-Wan Kenobi as most would agree the best thing about the series so far is his performance.

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