Ewan McGregor still wants to return as Obi-Wan Kenobi again, so don't rule out more adventures set before A New Hope
He's fantastic in the role, but we'd rather explore other eras and characters.
Obi-Wan Kenobi, an okay show that was carried by Ewan McGregor's strong lead performance, was meant to be a limited Disney Plus series. To this day, Lucasfilm still hasn't announced plans to do more, but that isn't stopping both McGregor and Hayden Christensen from campaigning to return to a galaxy far, far away.
Ewan McGregor is receiving his own star at Hollywood's Walk of Fame today, Thursday 12, and ahead of the event, he talked to Variety about his career, paying special attention to his surprisingly long run as Obi-Wan Kenobi, first as one of the leads of the Star Wars prequels, and years later in the Disney Plus show that reunited him with Hayden Christensen.
After expressing his love for Alec Guinness' work as Obi-Wan Kenobi, he once again openly admitted he's down to work on another season should the opportunity arise: "I really do hope we get a chance to do another one...between where we ended off in the series and when Alec Guinness comes on screen with Luke Skywalker, I think there’s another few stories to tell in there." The (for now) limited series ended with Kenobi saving Leia from Imperial captors and facing Darth Vader to finally let Anakin Skywalker, the man he left to die on Mustafar, go. After that, he finally got to meet a very yong Luke and wandered into the desert, only to be greeted by Force ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, which explains why he managed to become one with the Force years later instead of simply dying at the hands of Vader, something that was already suggested in Revenge of the Sith.
The thing is... having Obi-Wan and Vader face off before A New Hope already felt like a bit of a stretch even if the show retroactively fixed a number of continuity issues between Revenge and Hope. In fact, many fans would argue it created another set of issues by bringing Leia and Luke into the main conflicts. Old Ben Kenobi already showed up in Star Wars Rebels too, much closer to the events of A New Hope, where he faced and downed for good an old Darth Maul still looking for revenge. On top of that, some (canon) comic books also have him running around Tatooine and doing some cool stuff, so it feels like his 'Tatooine era' was already as eventful as physically possible. Sending him off into another offworld adventure just doesn't feel right, but we're not opposed to seeing him return as a Force ghost in projects set later in the timeline.
Meanwhile, Christensen is actually getting an extended second Star Wars run as Anakin Skywalker and Darth Vader due to his extra importance as Ahsoka Tano's mentor, and we wouldn't be surprised if he shows up in a big-screen Star Wars installment (perhaps Dave Filoni's event movie) in one way or another, especially after the sequels oddly skipped that opportunity except for a small voice cameo alongside other Jedi Knights in The Rise of Skywalker. That said, the actor is still down to work alongside his friend if possible: "If it means that I got to do more with Ewan, then that’s a no-brainer, but I really hope that he continues with the character."
With The Acolyte now officially cooked after trying something new, The Mandalorian & Grogu (the next Star Wars movie) sounding like a big ball of Jon Favreau-helmed fanservice, and the more potentially refreshing Star Wars theatrical releases still with their scripts in the oven, we shouldn't rule out Disney and Lucasfilm giving Obi-Wan Kenobi a second go to score an easy goal with the most conservative fans. That's the exact opposite of what the franchise needs to find new fans and survive in the long run though.