For years, Star Wars fans have been waiting for Ewan McGregor to pop up and say ‘hello there!’ to the galaxy far, far away again. And he’s about to do just that, because the much-anticipated Obi-Wan Kenobi series is officially a go – a ‘special event series’ (read: likely a one-off run) coming to Disney+ that delves into the years between Obi-Wan’s fateful battle against a pre-Vader Anakin Skywalker on Mustafar in Revenge Of The Sith, and his encounters with Luke Skywalker in A New Hope. Disney has confirmed that the show is more or less ready to roll, stating “production begins soon” – and it’s just announced some pretty fascinating casting to boot.
It’s long been known that McGregor would be back, and last year we learned that the Prequel Trilogy’s Hayden Christensen is also returning to play Vader – but alongside them, Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse have now been confirmed as well. Surely, they’ll be reprising their roles of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru – so start the fan rumours now that we’ll be seeing a young Luke Skywalker somewhere in the show. Elsewhere, there are some fascinating cast additions – Kumail Nanjiani, O’Shea Jackson Jr, Indira Varma, and Benny Safdie (of Uncut Gems and Good Time directing duo the Safdie Brothers) are all named cast members. Plus, Sung Kang – who for years has played Han Seoul-Oh in the Fast & Furious films – is now officially going to be in a Star Wars project. Hear us out: what if he kept that character name, just for a laugh?
Rounding out the new cast additions are Moses Ingram, who recently appeared in The Queen’s Gambit, Rupert Friend (no word yet on whether he’ll actually be a foe), and Simone Kessell. Stay tuned for info on whether she’ll have a walk-on role, or if we’ll see Kessell run. (We are so, so sorry.)
This is easily one of the most exciting Star Wars projects currently in the works (elsewhere there’s more Mando on the horizon, plus The Book Of Boba Fett and Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron movie) and it has recurring Mandalorian director Deborah Chow behind the camera. We’ll see what they manage to cook up when the show arrives in 2022.