The three “Star Wars” prequels that George Lucas made on the daybreak of the twenty first century conquered the field workplace, grossing greater than $2 billion worldwide. However the prequel trilogy was much less profitable by different metrics. The critics have been harsh — and legions of followers reared on the unique house opera have been particularly despondent.
Ewan McGregor, the Scottish actor who performed a younger Obi-Wan Kenobi within the movies, remembers the combined indicators all too effectively.
“It was one of many troublesome issues about being within the prequels,” he stated at a digital media occasion Thursday. “Once they got here out, they weren’t seemingly effectively acquired.”
In time, nonetheless, McGregor found what could be characterised as a vibe shift across the motion pictures. He encountered millennials — individuals who have been simply children when the prequels rolled out within the late Nineties and the early 2000s — who felt immense nostalgia for the tales of Padmé Amidala, Darth Maul and even Jar Jar Binks.
“I turned extra conscious of the fondness that the era that we made the prequels for has for these movies,” McGregor stated, later including: “They could not perceive why I believed that they weren’t appreciated after they got here out, ? It meant lots to me.”
Seventeen years after the theatrical debut of the third prequel, McGregor is again in dusty Jedi Grasp robes in “Obi-Wan Kenobi,” a six-episode miniseries that debuts Could 27 on Disney+. (McGregor, additionally identified for his roles in “Moulin Rouge!” and “Trainspotting,” is likely one of the present’s govt producers.)
“Obi-Wan Kenobi” is the third Disney+ authentic collection set within the sprawling “Star Wars” universe, following within the footsteps of “The Mandalorian” and “The E-book of Boba Fett,” two spaghetti Western-style adventures following the interplanetary exploits of masked bounty hunters and their compatriots.
McGregor, 51, described his street again to Tatooine as a “lengthy, gradual course of.” He recalled that, for years, followers and reporters alike requested him whether or not he would ever reprise the position. He ultimately began saying sure, and progressively with better enthusiasm in regards to the concept.
Walt Disney Studios, the proprietor of Lucasfilm and steward of the “Star Wars” franchise, evidently took discover.
“Disney requested me to return in someday for a gathering as a result of they stored seeing on social media that I used to be saying I want to play Obi-Wan Kenobi once more. It appeared like I used to be touting for work at Disney’s door,” McGregor joked.
McGregor stated he felt strongly that the collection wanted to assist fill within the narrative blanks between the third prequel, “Revenge of the Sith,” and the unique “Star Wars” film, retroactively titled “A New Hope.” On this section of the “Star Wars” timeline, Obi-Wan is exiled on Tatooine, the place he quietly retains a watch on toddler Luke and Leia.
Deborah Chow, who directed two episodes of “The Mandalorian,” helmed all six installments of “Obi-Wan Kenobi.” She noticed the collection as Lucasfilm’s reply to motion pictures like Todd Philips’ “Joker” or James Mangold’s “Logan” — an opportunity to focus extra narrowly on a personality who’s normally a part of a wider franchise ensemble.
“I believe, initially, I used to be most enthusiastic about doing a character-driven story,” Chow stated Thursday, including that she was additionally keen on the moody visible fashion of “Rogue One,” a “Star Wars” spinoff movie launched in 2016.
‘He is misplaced his religion’
“Obi-Wan Kenobi” marks the return of at the very least one different acquainted face from the prequels: Hayden Christensen, who performed a younger Anakin Skywalker, the headstrong Jedi who’s lured to the darkish facet and — spoiler alert, for the uninitiated — transforms into the intergalactic tyrant Darth Vader.
“We have been shut,” McGregor stated of his relationship with Christensen whereas they have been capturing the three movies. “However over time, we barely misplaced contact. … Once we have been appearing collectively once more, it was actually like a time warp, and searching throughout at him on set [it] was just like the final 17 years did not occur.”
Once we have been appearing collectively once more, it was actually like a time warp, and searching throughout at him on set [it] was just like the final 17 years didn’t occur.
-EwaN McGregor on Hayden Christensen
However the collection additionally introduces new characters, together with a lightsaber-wielding villain (an Inquisitor, in Lucasfilm parlance) named Reva Sevander, performed by Moses Ingram, an Emmy-nominated actor who scored her breakout position on Netflix’s “The Queen’s Gambit.”
When Ingram learn a model of the “Obi-Wan” script, she was not even conscious it was a “Star Wars” venture, recalling that names and different telltale particulars have been strategically withheld throughout the audition course of. However she was drawn to the script’s “edgy” really feel — and when she later realized in regards to the “Star Wars” hyperlink, “I could not say no.”
Lucasfilm didn’t share episodes of the collection with the information media forward of the Could 27 premiere, and plot specifics have been stored tightly beneath wraps. McGregor, nonetheless, described what he noticed as Obi-Wan’s disillusioned mind set at the beginning of the miniseries, which picks up 10 years after the occasions of “Revenge of the Sith.”
“He can’t talk with any of his previous comrades, and he’s residing a fairly solitary life,” McGregor stated. “He is not ready to make use of the Power, so in a method he is misplaced his religion. It is like anyone who stepped away from their faith, for those who like, and the one duty to his previous life is trying over Luke Skywalker.”
For McGregor, the expertise of creating “Obi-Wan Kenobi” deepened his religion in a generation-spanning franchise he has adored since he was somewhat boy. Within the scripts, for instance, he may sense the presence of Alec Guinness, the distinguished British actor who performed the character within the authentic movie.
“I believe the writing was so, so good on this,” he stated, “as a result of proper from the phrase ‘go,’ all of his dialogue felt prefer it may have been Alec Guinness saying it. Then I knew we have been on the precise path.”