It’s been almost 20 years since Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen last played Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, but they’ve picked up their lightsabers again for the upcoming Disney Plus show Obi-Wan Kenobi. Speaking with Total Film, the actors share their favorite memories from filming the new Star Wars series.
“A lot of amazing memories,” Christensen tells us. “The first time I saw Ewan as Obi-Wan again, that was huge. First time I put back on the Darth Vader costume, that was a very emotional experience for me. But yeah, there was more than a few of them.”
McGregor and Christensen haven’t worked together since 2005’s Revenge of the Sith, and reuniting was another special experience for Christensen.
“It was incredible,” he says. “We had a great time when we were working on the prequels, and we became very close, and he’s someone that I have a tremendous amount of love for. Stepping back into these roles again, it was kind of like no time had passed. But of course, it was all these years later, and so there was this surreal aspect to it too where we were both kind of like, we couldn’t believe that we were doing this.”
As for McGregor, he’s hesitant to give too much away. “There’s some very special memories from this,” the actor says on a separate Zoom call. “There’s one scene that I play that’s a very special memory, but I can’t say why or what it’s about, so maybe you’ll know later.”
But, he does reveal that working on Obi-Wan Kenobi reminded him of earlier times playing the titular Jedi. “All of the physical stuff, fighting, be it with a lightsaber or not, was really good fun to work on and to train for, as it had been in the original films,” he says. “Some of the lightsaber fights from Episode 3, for instance, or the fight with Darth Maul in Episode 1 with Liam [Neeson] was pretty amazing to learn and to train for and to actually shoot. So I’m quite proud of those moments.”
Obi-Wan Kenobi debuts exclusively on Disney Plus from May 27. For much more on the series, check out our interviews with McGregor and Christensen on how Anakin and Obi-Wan’s relationship has changed and Christensen on why he didn’t speak to George Lucas before returning as Darth Vader, as well as Moses Ingram on playing the newest Star Wars villain, Reva.
For everything else coming soon from the galaxy far, far away, see our guide to all the upcoming Star Wars movies and TV shows coming soon.