While The Book of Boba Fett is just over a month away from its Disney+ premiere, it seems that most Star Wars fans are really focused on next year and the release of the Obi-Wan Kenobi series that will star Ewan McGregor in his return to the role originated by Sir Alec Guinness. It will also, even more surprisingly, see the return of Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader. Fans are going to be thrilled to see this but Lucasfilm chief Kathleen Kennedy says she was surprised at just how much it meant to the actors themselves.
In a new interview with Empire Magazine Kathleen Kennedy says that both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen were quite excited to get to work on the new Disney+ series, but that it was also an emotional experience for them both. It’s not necessarily something that you think about, but the prequels were big movies not only for Star Wars but for the careers of these two actors. Kennedy explained...
The thing that was most exciting was being on the set and watching the two of them get excited. They hadn’t seen one another in a long time. I was surprised at just how incredibly emotional it was for each of them to find themselves back in these roles, and just realizing how important Star Wars was to each of them. It was the beginning of their careers.
I feel like saying the Star Wars prequels were the beginning of Ewan McGregor’s career is selling the actor a bit short. He’d been in several significant movies prior to The Phantom Menace. Having said that, the first prequel film was certainly the biggest movie he’d ever been in to that point in his career and it turned him from being an actor into a movie star. It’s a bit more true for Hayden Christensen, whose filmography is mostly made up on TV guest appearances prior to Star Wars: The Attack of the Clones.
And considering how the reception to the prequels has been mixed over the years, it wouldn’t be that surprising if these actors did not have the strongest connection to the films. But whatever the fans happen to think of the films, it seems these actors truly had an emotional reaction to being back in the galaxy far, far away.
Of course, in the new series the relationship between the characters will be quite different. In the prequels, they were mostly allies, but now they will be enemies as Hayden Christensen isn’t playing Anakin Skywalker, but instead Darth Vader. Although, how that will work, what with Darth Vader being covered in armor and, one assumes, sounding more like James Earl Jones that Hayden Christensen, is anybody’s guess.
