The Star Wars prequels arrived as a highly anticipated continuation of a beloved franchise yet quickly became a lightning rod for debate over storytelling choices and execution. Their release sparked years of polarized discussion that extended far beyond opening weekends. Ewan McGregor has opened up about how the intense backlash affected him personally after committing to the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
Deadline coverage of the Edinburgh Film Festival appearance details how the actor spoke candidly on August 15 while discussing his career trajectory. He explained that deciding to take on the part had not been straightforward because he was then focused on more intimate, arthouse projects. McGregor recalled phoning director Danny Boyle, his uncle Dennis Lawson, and others he respected to seek their advice before ultimately signing on, noting that the closer he got to the films the more he wanted to do them even though they differed sharply from independent work.
He described the process of fully immersing himself in the characters only to watch the finished movies face severe criticism, so that was weird and hard — to sort of put yourself into something like that, and then for them to be really dragged through the mud by the critics. But I learned a lot about not giving a sh*t. The experience, he added, taught him a valuable lesson in resilience after pouring energy into performances that many reviewers rejected at the time.
McGregor later expanded on how his understanding of the films’ place in the culture evolved once he returned to the character years afterward.
The truth is, I didn’t know that when we made the series [Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi ]. I found that out later when they premiered the series. They showed it at a Star Wars convention in California. And I’d never been to one. I never went to conventions, or anything like that. But then when we went to the premiere, they played the first two episodes. I had many thousands of people behind me, and I felt a rush there. When I started signing autographs, I started meeting people who we made those films for: They were children when we made them. And then I started realizing that [those films] were loved.
The actor noted that performing in the prequels required a different approach than the more emotionally exploratory roles he had pursued earlier in his career, such as in The Pillow Book. In those big-studio productions the task centered less on uncovering a character’s interior life and more on serving a larger spectacle. He still enjoyed making the movies despite the eventual critical response.
McGregor also addressed how age factored into his portrayal across the years. When he first played a younger Obi-Wan he was in his mid-twenties, while Alec Guinness had been in his sixties for the original A New Hope. Returning for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series in his late forties felt more aligned with the character’s later stage of life and made the performance easier to approach.
Looking ahead, he expressed clear interest in revisiting the role again. At the end of the prequel trilogy he and Liam Neeson as Qui-Gon Jinn simply wandered off, leaving room for further stories. McGregor suggested there could be one great tale, or two, or three, or even another series waiting to be told.
His comments closed with an open door on the character that once faced such heavy criticism, pointing to unfinished business between Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon as fertile ground for new stories rather than a closed chapter.
