The British star had three Oscar nominations under his belt, winning Best Actor for The Bridge on the River Kwai. Ewan McGregor plays Obi-Wan Kenobi in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and all three Star Wars prequel films.īy the time Alec Guinness played the wise Ben/Obi-Wan Kenobi in 1977's Star Wars: A New Hope (which earned him an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor), he had already had a very lengthy and accomplished career. And for a whole generation of Star Wars fans, and likely more, that is Obi-Wan Kenobi.
But he's been playing the trilogy-spanning Jedi master since 1999-23 years at this point-and is someone who knows the character better than anyone. Sure, Alec Guinness played Obi-Wan first, and McGregor isn't the only one who's played the character in the years since. The money quote there is a simple three-word phrase: "the real Obi-Wan." And she's absolutely right there. "He has been so engaged in the entire process, and our excitement and reason for doing this is that the real Obi-Wan wanted to tell this story." "The beauty of Obi-Wan Kenobi is Ewan desperately wanted to do this," she said. McGregor plays the Jedi apprentice-turned-master with a calm and effortless charm that led audiences to welcome him home all these years later-and must have been fun enough to draw its A-list star back, too.Ĭlearly, Kennedy must be talking out of both sides of her mouth at least a little bit as well, as she basically refers to McGregor as the definitive Obi-Wan Kenobi (despite not being the original actor). In the prequels-which were largely dismissed upon release but have found admiration as its original audience has grown older-McGregor's Obi-Wan was the rock that held the movies down amidst some undeniably strange writing choices, racist caricatures as characters, and CGI that would prove to age poorly. While Guinness, an Oscar-winner in the '50s long before he ever even heard the word "Jedi," was the original Obi-Wan, Ewan McGregor's performance has best stood the test of time. We’re not going to suddenly go try to do that." Considering McGregor himself was, at first, a recast version of Guinness' original portrayal, it makes the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi a bit confusing, no? Kennedy continued in another Vanity Fair interview: "We would never make Indiana Jones without Harrison Ford.We also can’t go do something with Luke Skywalker that isn’t Mark Hamill. And while Guinness was the first one to ever claim his name was actually "Ben" and not "Obi-Wan," it's McGregor who's become the performer most eternally connected with the character-one of the most storied Jedi Knights in all of Star Wars lore.
Obi wan kenobi cast series#
It's an eyebrow raising statement, mostly, because Lucasfilm was about to launch Obi-Wan Kenobi, a series starring Ewan McGregor as the titular Obi-Wan Kenobi-a recast version of a character played by Alec Guinness in 1977's original Star Wars: A New Hope.
“Now it does seem so abundantly clear that we can’t do that.” “There should be moments along the way when you learn things,” Kennedy said. In discussing Solo, the 2018 film that explored Han Solo's younger years and cast Alden Ehrenreich in Harrison Ford's iconic set of vests and jackets, Kennedy seemed to acknowledge that she had drawn the conclusion to no longer attempt to recreate the magic of beloved Star Wars characters with new actors. Kathleen Kennedy-president of Lucasfilm, and thus, head honcho of any and everything related to Star Wars and everyone's favorite galaxy far, far, away-made an eyebrow-raising statement in a recent Vanity Fair cover story.
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