We know Obi-Wan Kenobi hung out in the Dune Sea on the planet Tatooine and watched over the young Luke Skywalker from a distance for ages, but there’s always been more to the venerable Jedi’s story. Fortunately, Ewan McGregor himself says he’s totally ready to do not one, but two standalone Star Wars films.
Speaking at a red carpet event in France for his upcoming film American Pastoral, McGregor said, “It would be fun to film that story now I’m older. I’d be the right age. I’m 45, Alec Guinness was what, 60? I could do two of them!”
Since Ewan McGregor provided the partial voice of Obi-Wan during Rey’s vision in The Force Awakens in 2015, the notion of seeing him as Obi-Wan Kenobi’s ghost in Episode VIII and beyond has become an increasingly hot topic of speculation. And though in the same interview McGregor emphasized that “there are no plans” and he said, “no one approached me,” a film featuring Obi-Wan Kenobi in the flesh has plenty of very recent in-canon material to work with.
The current ongoing Marvel Star Wars comic series has created a series of vignettes about Obi-Wan’s time on Tatooine, via Luke discovering his former master’s journals. Here, we’ve discovered why Obi-Wan and Uncle Owen had a falling out, what Obi-Wan’s relationship was like with Yoda before The Phantom Menace, and exactly what Luke and Obi-Wan’s interactions were prior to them meeting again in A New Hope. Plus, there’s every reason to believe that the animated version of Master Kenobi could have a final showdown with Darth Maul sometime soon. It would be great to see such a duel depicted on the big screen with McGregor and Ray Park back in their respective roles. And, if a series of Obi-Wan films were to include flashbacks, then his fateful Clone Wars romance with the Duchess Satine of Mandalore could be also be given its cinematic due.
Ewan McGregor offered additional insight into how Obi-Wan standalone movies might work tonally in relationship to the rest of the universe: “What is good with Star Wars is that it is very extensive. They have a kind of carte blanche to do stories in this universe that are completely different,” he said. “Hopefully they will explore different genres under the banner ‘Star Wars,’ and one of them could be a feature film Obi-Wan Kenobi. Or two! Obi-Wan Kenobi Story Part 1 and Part 2!”
If any Obi-Wan movies did happen, we can only hope there would be at least one scene where he uses a Jedi mind trick to make everyone start calling him “Ben.”
