Ahead of its Disney+ launch on June 8 in the Middle East, Esquire Middle East speaks with Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen about their long-awaited return to Star Wars in Obi-Wan Kenobi
Ewan McGregor hadn’t seen Hayden Christensen in years. A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away—Australia, to be exact—the two had been like brothers, spending years away from home as they filmed Star Wars Episodes II and II, nearly inseparable throughout. Now, as the two met over coffee to discuss the possibility of revisiting the world they’d left behind, Ewan wasn’t prepared for how emotional it would make him feel, and the memories it would rush back.
“We were just so close when we first met. We were both away from home, and we had so much training for the fights together, coupled with being on set together throughout. We were so far away from home, so we spent a lot of time together outside of work. We were really just so close,” McGregor says.
“After we’d lost touch, seeing him again was just so exciting. It’s hard to describe,” he continues, with that trademark twinkle in his eye.
Back in 2005 when Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released, it seemed that their part of the story was over. Ewan had played Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Jedi Master first made iconic by the legendary Sir Alec Guinness, through three films. Hayden had played Anakin Skywalker-cum-Darth Vader through two. It had been an indelible part in their lives, and as much joy as making the films brought them, if Star Wars was to continue, the story would next jump far to the future, leaving their prequel series behind.
There was another reason that things seemed to be over, one that’s a bit more difficult to talk about. Their films, from 1999’s Episode I and onward, while huge box office successes, were held in popular wisdom to be creative failures, with Hayden’s performance in particular falling victim to constant mockery in both fan circles and broader pop culture.
Over the years, however, things started to change. As it turned out, younger fans had fallen in love with the series, but had no avenue yet to voice that love in the final pre-social media years. As they started to grow into young adults and took over the internet, they in fact becoming the loudest voices in the fandom. For those fans, free of the baggage of Gen X irony and expectation, the films were something wonderful, and Ewan and Hayden were beloved pillars, just as Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher had been for the generations before. It was something neither of them expected.
Why Ewan McGregor wanted to return as Obi-Wan
“I started to realize it when, at the end of every interview I ever did for years, I was asked, ‘would I ever play Obi-Wan Kenobi again’. It was always the last question as the publicist poked her head around the door saying, ‘That’s the last question.’ I just started answering it honestly, that I would love to, and from the reaction to that I became more aware of the fondness that the generation that we made the prequels for have for those films, and that they meant a lot to that generation. Because when we made them, we didn’t hear that. We didn’t get that response, really, at all,” says McGregor.
“That love warmed my feelings about them, I guess, and to my experience of being in the Star Wars world,” he continues.
Hayden Christensen and the love that never left
For Christensen in particular, feeling that support has been beyond vindicating. As we ask him about that love, his words barely capture the emotion behind his eyes as he says them.
“It’s just been so heartwarming,” Christensen tells us. “I can’t really tell you what it means to me. It’s a really neat thing. I don’t know that I can really define it. But you know, I guess the moral of the story is patience.”
It wasn’t just fans who heard Ewan’s responses in the media that he would love to return as the Jedi Master. Disney heard them, too. And as they attempted to construct their plan for the future of the franchise they’d taken over from George Lucas, suddenly filling in the story between Episodes III and IV made more and more sense.
“Disney asked me to come in one day for a meeting, because they kept seeing on social media that I’m saying that I would like to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again. It must have looked like I was sort of touting for work at Disney’s door. ‘Like, you know, could you cast me?’, McGregor laughs.
“But anyway, they got me in and asked me if I mean it. I said, yeah, I would love to play him again. I think there’s got to be a good story between Episode III and Episode IV.”
No one could be sure, after the hate he had unfairly endured, whether Christensen would be as happy to rejoin—or if he’d pushed Star Wars out of his mind entirely. As it turns out, Anakin had stayed in the back of his mind all this time.
“Once you’re in Star Wars, it never really leaves you,” Christensen tells us.
“These stories and films have sort of had an incredible impact on our culture. I’m always sort of reminded of my involvement. It’s been wonderful to interact with fans when they tell me sort of what those films meant to them, and what the character meant to them. It’s always sort of been in my headspace,” Christensen says.
When he finally got the call from Disney, all that came to his mind were the positives, all with an unabashed elation.
“It meant a great deal [to get that call]. This is a character that has defined my life in so many ways. Getting to continue my journey with him is just hugely meaningful,” Christensen says.
“There wasn’t a lot to wrestle with. it was pretty easy decision. When I got the phone call, and the invitation to come back, it was it was very quick yes,” Christensen continues.
In Obi-Wan Kenobi, which premieres exclusively on Disney+ on June 8 across the Middle East, gone is the boy on the cusp of manhood that Christensen had once portrayed. This time, he is fully Darth Vader, the most feared Sith Lord in the galaxy. It was a challenge Christensen was more than ready for.
“It’s really interesting coming to this character when I’m at a different place in my life, and have a new perspective on my work,” Christensen says.
“This is a character that has stayed with me, and that I’ve continued to think about over the years. Coming back to it and continuing my exploration, has been a very unique opportunity. The character of Darth Vader is at an interesting place in his life, too, in terms of what has happened before, and where we left him in Episode III. He’s very much sort of trying to reconcile his past and hunting down the Jedi. It’s his job. And he’s mandated by the emperor, but it’s more than that, It’s a personal mission for him.”
While Darth Vader has become a man on a dark and emotional mission, Ewan’s Obi-Wan is a shell of his former self, giving his portrayal a darker tone than we experienced in the days of constant quips and catchphrases.
“He lost his faith. It’s like somebody who’s stepped away from their religion, if you like. It was interesting to take a character that we know and love from Alec Guinness’ creation of the character in the seventies of this wise, sage-like, spiritual man. The that I did in Episode I to III turned him from the padawan, from the student, to the Jedi, to somebody’s who’s sitting on the Jedi council. Now, to take that Obi-Wan take him to this more sort of broken place was really interesting to do,” says McGregor.
As exciting as Obi-Wan is from a storytelling perspective, what’s most significant about it is that to its fans, the series feels bigger than the Star Wars sequels, bigger than The Mandalorian—bigger than anything since Episode III ended. For years, fans toiled online to make others understand the brilliance of the series they loved—and the performances from Ewan and Hayden they adored. Now, finally, with Obi-Wan Kenobi their moment has come, and those actors are now pushed back in the spotlight.
It’s a moment that both Ewan and Hayden are more than ready for.