One of the things most Star Wars fans are looking forward to is the upcoming Ewan McGregor-led Obi-Wan Kenobi series coming to Disney+ next year. While details on the series are hard to come by, we do know the series is six episodes, set ten years after the events of Revenge of the Sith, and directed by Deborah Chow. We also know Chung-hoon Chung was the cinematographer, they used The Volume technology (which was previously used on The Mandalorian) to shoot the series, and Hayden Christensen is set to return as Darth Vader alongside Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse as Owen and Beru Lars. Finally, the new faces joining the Star Wars universe include Indira Varma, Moses Ingram, Simone Kessell, Sung Kang, Kumail Nanjiani, Rupert Friend, Benny Safdie, and O’Shea Jackson Jr.
So when I spoke with O'Shea Jackson Jr. about his upcoming series Swagger that arrives on AppleTV+ this Friday, I tried to find out whatever I could about his work on Obi-Wan Kenobi. As expected, he was extremely tight lipped and very careful not to spill any of the secrets. But I did learn he’s a huge Star Wars fan, had auditioned for Lando in the Solo movie and was extremely disappointed to not get the role, and talked about how impressed he was shooting the series using The Volume technology.
Watch what he had to say in the player above or you can read the transcript below. Look for my full interview with O'Shea Jackson Jr. later this week.
COLLIDER: As you may or may not know, I am a Star Wars fan. There is no way that I am not going to sit here and ask you a question about Kenobi. But I know you've got to be careful with your answers. I'll just say, were you a Star Wars fan going in? Was this one of these things where they called you about Kenobi, you're like, "Are you effing kidding me?"
O’SHEA JACKSON JR: Yeah. I was watching Star Wars before I came down here right now. I'm a real big Star Wars fan. I had auditioned for Lando for the Solo film, and when I didn't get it, it crushed me. I was like, "You know what? I quit. I'm going back to being a writer. I'm done." I was filming Swagger, and my agents were like, "Yo, we need you free in the next two days, noon." I'm like, "All right." They're like, "Just listen. You want to take this meeting."
So I took it and it was Deb, Lord Deb. Shout out to Lord Deb. Deborah Chow. She gave me an opportunity of a lifetime and it's a... God, I can't wait to talk about it so bad. I want to talk about it so bad, but I know Mickey probably still has my phone bugged, and I just love my family.
I really cannot wait to talk to you about it. Can you tease? Were you able to touch and use a lightsaber? Are you allowed to say it?
JACKSON JR: All I'm going to say is, I really am a fan of Ewan McGregor. That's my boy. And my man, Kumail. Kumail is my dog. Kumail's really been a major motivation for me when it comes to getting in shape for Den of Thieves 2, because of just how jacked he got for Eternals. Yeah, he's got his line open for me, any questions that I need. Yeah, he's got an action figure now, because he's in the Eternals. I'm going to need that. He said he'll give me a good price for it. So we'll see how that goes.
I got news for you. When you're in Star Wars, most likely you'll also be an action figure. This is something I think you can talk about, though. They use this really cool technology, The Volume, when you're making Star Wars. I wanted to know, what was your reaction working with The Volume technology? What impressed you? What was cool about it?
JACKSON JR: What's so crazy about The Volume is, you really forget. After a while, you forget that you're just in this studio. The scariest part about it is when they turn it off. Because you'll be sitting somewhere, some cave in the middle or whatever, you got background on the volume working around and you get so engulfed in the scene that when they turn it off and the entire room you're in just goes white. It's kind of like a Matrix moment, when he visits the architect. It was a crazy experience.
It really would've saved a lot of people back in the day to have that type of technology. I could just imagine, filming on location in these... No disrespect, but these terrible places. So it definitely saved a lot of man hours. It's hard to explain the feeling that it gives you walking in there. The abilities that it brings as filmmakers, it just gives us so much that normally you'd have to be playing pretend on a green screen. Or just, "Okay, this looks like this," and getting terrible descriptions. Yeah, it's a time-saver, it's a lifesaver. And God, somebody, please give me more Star Wars jobs.