Meet new characters from the saga of starwars (since 1977), as Jyn Erso in Felicity Jones and her friends in rogue one (2016) or the bounty hunter played by Pedro Pascal, little Grogu and company in The Mandalorian (as of 2019), it makes sense for these galactic adventures to make real contributions. But we also understand that they offer us miniseries like Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022): mythical characters attract the audience.
Especially if he jedi played by Scotsman Ewan McGregor during the George Lucas prequel trilogy (1999-2005) after the work of Alec Guinness in the original feature films and, now, in the six episodes directed by Canadian Deborah Chow, he is accompanied by Hayden Christensen’s Darth Vader. The former, along with the filmmaker and Moses Ingram, who plays the inquisitor Reva, has answered a few questions for us at an international press conference.
“For years, I was asked two things: if i would do the sequel Trainspotting [1996] and yes ever would play Obi-Wan Kenobi again”, tells Ewan McGregor to the media in Spain. “It was always the last two questions as the publicist stuck her head in the door saying, ‘That’s the last question.'” And, in truth, it has confirmed both possibilities and, thus, the desire of many viewers: thanks to the sequel about Mark Renton and the Disney+ miniseries.
Ewan McGregor, recovering the voice of Obi-Wan Kenobi
The famous company that owns Lucasfilm “asked him to come one day for a meeting because they kept seeing on social media that he would like to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again,” continues the actor, “as if he were begging for work in the Disney gate”, and “they asked him if he was serious and he said yes.” Someone who could have been a Christian in Moulin Rouge (2001) or the young Ed Bloom of bigfish (2003), longing to return to the gentleman jedi.
And the scripts satisfied him: “The writing was so good (…) because, from the beginning, in all his things, Alec Guiness could have said them for me. So, I knew we were on the right track.” At least with its protagonist. But, to get his voice back, he had to work hard: “I just did a kind of [acento] vague English and it wasn’t really Obi-Wan’s voice at all. And I was like, “Oh, darling. That’s not very good””.
“Fortunately, we had months before we started filming, so I went back and did some homework with Alec Guinness, which I had done before in the movies. [precuelas] originals”, exposes Ewan McGregor, for whom it was a great joy to meet Hayden Christensen again. “When I saw him again and was able to talk about this project with him, it was very, very exciting. And when we performed together, it was really like a kind of time warp.”
A series of six episodes that seems like a single movie
One of the biggest differences that the British interpreter has perceived regarding the prequels of starwars it is related to the digital cameras of that time, very noisy: “In post-production, they realized that the noise they were making was exactly at the frequency of the human voice”, so they had to dub the dialogues, which did not survive “because the cameras were very new”. And, “compared to what we’re doing now, it’s like night and day.”
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Not so much when it comes to the television format, on the other hand: “The beauty that [Obi-Wan Kenobi] is a series is that we have more time to tell the story, ”says Ewan McGregor. “But, because Deborah Chow directed all [los capítulos], and it’s his singular vision throughout, it felt like we were just making a movie. Y the episodic nature of our series fits very well into the plot”. The next day 27 we will check it on Disney +.