Star Wars fans have been awaiting the return of Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi for years, and his new Disney+ series is finally making it a reality and is providing a double win of also bringing back Hayden Christensen as Darth Vader for another face face-to-face confrontation. Recently McGregor revealed exactly how he saw Vader return for the first time when he saw the iconic movie villain on set. With the 6-episode series filling in some of the years between Revenge of The Sith and A New Hope, there is a lot of expectation about the show, and that is something that can always come back to bite a franchise.
Obi-Wan Kenobi takes place a decade after the Mustafar duel between Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker that resulted in the latter being badly burned and completing his transformation into Darth Vader. The series has already teased a number of highly anticipated character appearances with the voice of The Emperor being heard near the beginning of the trailer, along with brief glimpses of Vader’s Inquisitors, who are hunting down Jedi. There is also that all importance meeting of Kenobi and Vader, which we have already seen an artist’s concept of and is being hyped up as the “rematch of the century” by Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy.
In his interview with EW about the series, McGregor described being on the Volume soundstage when he noticed the crew standing around doing nothing, and while he wondered why they were unusually inactive, he saw a familiar figure appear around the corner. He said:
“I came round the set, and it was just this ring of people standing around. I had the cameras behind me looking down this street, and behind the cameras were 100 people standing there. They're usually in places doing work, not just standing. I couldn't quite work out what was happening. And then Vader comes around the corner, into the street, and I was like, 'Ah, f---. Of course!'”
Darth Vader Will Always Be The Dominant Presence of Star Wars
Since his first appearance in 1977, Darth Vader has been one of the most iconic and feared villains in cinema history. In the original movies, the prequels and even the sequel trilogy following his death the shadow of Vader loomed over the franchise. The character was last physically seen in an unexpected appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story back in 2016, but this time will be the first time since 2003 that Hayden Christensen has played the Sith Lord.
There has been no official confirmation of how much screen time Christensen will have as Vader, but there have been reports that three different actors will be portraying him in the series depending on the scene. It is thought that Christensen will play the role in scenes when Vader is seen for the first time since 1983 without his helmet, which other performers will take on the role for fight scenes and times when he is “standing around looking menacing.” There is still over two months until the series premieres on Disney+, which means there is still some time before we see the long-awaited rematch between Kenobi and Vader which is likely to form part of the series finale.
Obi-Wan Kenobi starts streaming on Disney+ on May 25, 2022.