Ewan McGregor reveals that the cast of Obi-Wan Kenobi used The Mandalorian set in preparation for the series.
In an interview on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, McGregor shared his experience working on the set of The Mandalorian and the difficulties he had relearning his character’s accent.
“We borrowed The Mandalorian set and we went in on a Sunday when they had a day off and they had a bit of their set and their crew were there. I went down and I went to this dressing room, and there was this sort of Obi-Wan-esque costume, you know? They’d sort of cobbled it together and I put it on and that was kind of breathtaking, after 17 years, looking in the mirror. But then I went on and started reading with these other actors, and I totally didn’t have his voice at all. It was really bad. I was just doing this sort of vague English accent, and it didn’t sound at all like Obi-Wan Kenobi.”
It’s actually par for the course that a previous Star Wars set was used. The Book of Boba Fett picked up production directly after The Mandalorian season 2, and apparently, the transition was so seamless that some crew members didn’t even notice they were working on a new show at first.
Obi-Wan Kenobi also makes use of the same technology as the preceding Star Wars shows as it uses the Volume, the StagecCraft developed physical set encircled by massive LED displays, to bring the show’s otherworldly planets and locations to life. So far, Tattoine, Mustafar, and the new planet Daiyu have been confirmed.
This is also McGregor’s first return to the character since Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where he faces off against his Padawan Anakin Skywalker (Hayden Christensen) and it wasn’t so easy for the actor to get back into the role. Thankfully, the actor went back and watched the original Star Wars movies and got back into it and he said it was good fun.
One of the actors McGregor worked with was Joel Edgerton’s Uncle Owen one of Luke Skywalker’s parental figure in the series, who was also in Revenge of the Sith. Owen doesn’t want Luke to follow the path of the Jedi because of the fate that had befallen Anakin, but Kenobi believes that the boy is the galaxy’s greatest hope.
The first two episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi premiere on Disney Plus May 27.
