Ewan McGregor describes reuniting with Hayden Christensen on Obi-Wan Kenobi as "spine-tingling"

The two actors are set to reprise their roles as the "friends turned enemies" Force users in the upcoming Disney Plus series

By Savannah Olson  |  March 11, 2022 | 5:35pm
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Ewan McGregor describes reuniting with Hayden Christensen on Obi-Wan Kenobi as
Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi. Screenshot: Lucasfilm/Disney+

Did you sense that massive disturbance in the Force? No, it wasn’t the release of Obi-Wan Kenobi’s first trailer (although that did cause some seismic uproars across the internet). That sense of upheaval and flourishing Force signatures comes from news of once closely allied Jedi friends—now great enemies— reuniting once more.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Ewan McGregor discussed how intense it was to see Hayden Christensen back in the role of Darth Vader on Obi-Wan Kenobi.

“To see Hayden back in the role of Anakin, well… it was sort of spine-tingling,” he said. “It was amazing. It was just amazing to see Hayden full-stop. I’m so close to him—we’ve stayed in touch over the years, but we haven’t seen each other for a long time.”

That excitement to see Christensen as Vader is buzzing to a 10 on the heavy breathing scale, but little is still known about his role in the Disney+ series. With no appearance in the recently dropped trailer, Disney has only given us a single image of the Sith villain leaving his meditation chamber.

“His shadow is cast across so much of what we do,” hinted series writer Joby Harold to Entertainment Weekly. “And the degree of his proximity to that shadow is something that we’ll discover. But he is very much a part of the show emotionally for Obi-Wan, and possibly beyond that as well.”

One of those characters likely influenced by Darth Vader will be a new villain created for the series—the Inquisitor Reva. Played by Moses Ingram (The Queen’s Gambit), she and other Inquisitors are led by The Grand Inquisitor on their mission to find and kill all remaining Jedi post-Order 66.

Even with Christensen’s Vader making it difficult for McGregor’s in-hiding Jedi, he expressed lots of love and excitement in getting to work with his former Padawan.

“I love him so much,” McGregor said. “We have this very special bond of making two of those first three films together. It was so important for both of us—for our careers and who we are.”

Although it was “odd” to be on set with him once again, McGregor similarly didn’t feel like time had passed at all.

“I looked across at him and we’re on a set and… I look over at him and he’s Anakin now, and I’m Obi-Wan now, and it’s like nothing had happened,” he recounted. “I didn’t see any age on his face. I just felt like the period of time between Episode III and now didn’t exist. It was so peculiar.”

Watch Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor reunite on Disney+’s Obi-Wan Kenobi on May 25.

 
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