For years, Ewan McGregor was forced to play coy or straight-up lie about a return to the “Star Wars” universe as the Jedi knight Obi-Wan Kenobi. But once the 2022 “Obi-Wan Kenobi” series on Disney+ aired, the actor seemingly couldn’t help but talk about it. In fact, despite Obi-Wan getting his due and finally getting to face-off against arch nemesis Darth Vader—seemingly what fans had wanted all along—McGregor still thinks there could be more appearances for the character, even though he’s meant to quietly protect and oversee Luke Skywalker for 18 years on Tattooine as part of the “Star Wars” mythos.
When questioned about the possibility of another adventure in the “Star Wars” universe by LADbible, the Scottish actor admitted that Lucasfilm/Disney hasn’t reached out about doing more yet. “I don’t know. There’s been no phone call to me from Lucasfilm or Disney saying, ‘Let’s do another one.’ Obi-Wan was made as a limited series, and it’s out, and people like it, which I’m very, very pleased about.”
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Despite the uncertainty, McGregor’s passion for the character is palpable, and the actor said he was optimistic that we would see him again. “I’m sure we will . I’ve got a few years yet before I’m the same age as Alec Guinness was in ‘A New Hope.’ So there’s time to tell more stories in there,” he said. This optimism should ignite a spark of anticipation in fans, but what those “more stories” could be is a little puzzling.
In the “Obi-Wan: Kenobi” lore, as soon as Kenobi saves Leia and Luke from Imperial Inquistors (not discovered by their father, Darth Vader), he is left to wander the desert of Tatooine and oversee Luke from afar. It’s hard to see what other prequel stories they could tell, as one of the best stories, Kenobi’s duel with Darth Maul, was told in the animated “Star Wars: Rebels” series. Of course, he could be whisked away off-world again, or a new threat to young Luke could surface, but more of this kind of storytelling would only help to undermine the mythology from “A New Hope,” where Skywalker barely knows Kenobi and the Jedi has been living a quiet exile ever since.
Originally, “Kenobi” was planned as a trilogy of movies internally at Lucasfilm before the studio pivoted to a streaming series, and it remains to be seen if they’ve used up all those ideas for the show or if there are some threads that could be pulled for a follow-up season/project. Perhaps they’ll consider having McGregor reprise the role for animated projects like “Tales of The Jedi” or “Star Wars: Visions,” but it’s hard to imagine another live-action series.
McGregor’s enthusiasm for the character is certainly infectious, but the likelihood of that return seems like a low priority or unlikely given the challenges that Obi-Wan Kenobi’s known timeline creates. Would there be a point for more? Time will tell.