As McGregor explained to Vanity Fair, unexpected returns have been a theme during his work as the Jedi Master. After all, when he finished his first three turns in the role, McGregor thought he had to put the Star Wars galaxy far, far behind him.
“It’s been a huge journey being part of Star Wars and for the longest time after the Prequels came out, there was no social media, there was no direct communication other than critics,” McGregor recalled. “It was such a massive film to shoot and then for it to come out and to be really panned was hard. I had no experience of that. That was all a bit of a confusion. So when [Revenge of the Sith] finished, I was off. I was just like, ‘See you later.’ I didn’t think too much about it.”
It was only years later that, with the advent of social media, that fans began sharing their love of the prequels with the Scottish actor. With that praise came a reoccurring question: “Would you ever play Obi-Wan again?” To which McGregor always responded with a casual, “Sure, yeah!”
At least, he remained casual, until Lucasfilm’s former head of story Kiri Hart reached out to him to reprise the role. “We sat down in an office and [Hart] just said, ‘You’re saying that you would like to do it again, and all we want to know, really, is—do you mean it?’ And I said, I’m glad to have this opportunity to say yes, I would love to do it again,” McGregor said.
From reject to respect. It seems like that’s the story of Obi-Wan Kenobi, on and off the screen.
