The Star Wars prequels have a lot of problems, but Ewan McGregor isn’t one of them, which is impressive when you consider that he’s following in the footsteps of a legendary actor like Sir Alec Guinness. McGregor’s performance gets better with each Star Wars film, and if Lucasfilm sees fit to try a standalone Obi-Wan movie, it would be great if they reached out to McGregor to lead it.
Steve Weintraub recently interviewed McGregor for the upcoming biopic Miles Ahead, and during their conversation they talked about McGregor possibly returning to the Star Wars universe (as more than just a voice) and his thoughts on The Force Awakens. Here’s the video:
Steve pointed out that the fans would like to see an Obi-Wan Kenobi movie, and McGregor responded:
I’d very much like to do one too. I think the story between Episode III and Episode IV, I think there’s a story there. I think that’s the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie, if there is one. The one that bridges my Obi-Wan Kenobi and Alec’s Obi-Wan Kenobi because there’s a—I don’t know how long he’s in the desert there, but it’s got to be twenty or thirty years.
When pressed if he met with Lucasfilm head Kathleen Kennedy, McGregor replied:
I’m not sure I’m at liberty to say, really, but I’m very interested in doing that. That would be great. Maybe there’s even a trilogy! (laughs)
Keeping the topic on Star Wars, McGregor also told us how he ended up seeing The Force Awakens and his thoughts on the film.
I liked it. Funnily enough, we had a test preview of the film I directed, American Pastoral, in Pasadena with 300 people, and they fill in cards after test screenings to tell you what they thought about your film. And of course when you do that, you have to check the print before you get 300 people in. So that happened in the morning; we’re all sitting in Pasadena and we’d all finished watching American Pastoral, and we’re all happy—it looks good, it sounds good, we’re good, we’re ready. And then I had like four hours before the audience arrived. So instead of just wandering around Pasadena, I was in a cinema multiplex, and they were playing Star Wars, and I hadn’t seen it yet. So I said, “Okay guys, I’ll see you in a couple of hours!” So I went from my film—I got some popcorn—and watched Star Wars, and I loved it. I really loved it. I thought it was great. I thought he did an amazing job. I was very excited to hear my voice come in. “That was me!”
Finally, when asked if he was being considered to play a force ghost for Episode VIII or IX, McGregor reiterated that he’s not that close to the production:
I don’t know anything about it. I’m really not in the picture with the Star Wars trilogy. As far as I know, I would be Alec Guinness by now, so I don’t know how that would work. I really don’t know and I haven’t had any discussions with anyone about it. To play Obi-Wan Kenobi again would be something I would love to do in one of the spinoff movies. If that were to happen in one of their trilogies, I would be up for that, but I don’t know how that would happen. I’m sure some of the Star Wars fans would come up with an idea of how that could happen.
Personally, I share McGregor’s point-of-view. To stay consistent, the force ghost would need to be Alec Guinness. The alternative is you slash up the original trilogy again to have a young Obi-Wan be the force ghost who talks to Luke, which then brings you to the problem of Luke seeing a young guy he’s never talked to before. Better to keep McGregor away from playing a force ghost and instead focus on a standalone Obi-Wan movie, which I would happily watch provided they got the right talent behind the camera.
Look for more from Steve's interview with McGregor soon.