Ewan McGregor Confirms Obi-Wan Show Was Originally Supposed To Be A Movie

Oh, Ewan. From courting Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge to courting a clone of Scarlett Johansson in The Island (remember that one? Oof!), Mr. McGregor has had an indelible impact on pop culture as a whole. He took his fame to a whole new level in 1999, though, when he inherited the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in The Phantom Menace.

And after suffering through three movies full of coarse sand and green screens, Ewan’s finally now getting another stab at playing a slightly-more-seasoned version of the beloved old Jedi in Disney Plus’ upcoming titular series, which will showcase the hermit’s time on Tatooine, probably.

However, the show was almost, at one point, a singular movie. We recently learned that Ewan’s known about the project for four years and it’s obviously gone through a few permutations. Upon recently being asked about the series’ development during the press tour for the upcoming Doctor Sleep, McGregor had this to say:

“It wasn’t always going to be a series, not initially. When we first started talking about, that wasn’t really in the cards but everything’s changed so much, so quickly. It’s really exciting that it is now. I’m really into the idea to be able to tell the story over several hours instead of just one hit. I think it’s going to be quite cool.”

So far, we know that the show is set eight years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, it’ll be six episodes long, will be helmed by Debra Chow, who’s also working on The Mandalorian, and audiences may see Joel Edgerton reprise his role as Uncle Owen, which is a selling point, I guess. We have no idea when the series is due out, but I imagine production will commence in early 2020.

While I don’t think focusing on the Jedi Master is the best idea for a TV show, I do like the idea of Ewan getting his hands on a lightsaber again and shouting “Hello there!” into a canyon with some great reverberation. With any luck, this Obi-Wan Kenobi show will also give the actor some better material to work with than the prequels and once we learn more about what to expect, we’ll be sure to let you know.