Forty-five years to the day after the character's first onscreen appearance, Obi-Wan Kenobi will have the "Star Wars" spotlight all to himself.
Disney announced on Wednesday the character’s eponymous miniseries will start streaming on Disney+ on May 25, the 45th anniversary of the theatrical release of "Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope," which was simply titled "Star Wars" at the time.
Ewan McGregor, who portrayed a younger Kenobi in the "Star Wars" prequel trilogy, will return to the role in the Deborah Chow-directed limited series. "Obi-Wan Kenobi" follows the character in between "Episode III: Revenge of the Sith" and "A New Hope" as he hides out on Tatooine and watches over a young Luke Skywalker.
McGregor, Chow and Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy have all teased that Kenobi will confront Anakin Skywalker, his former apprentice who became Darth Vader, once more. Hayden Christensen is reprising the role after appearing in two of the prequels with McGregor.
"(It) was just fantastic to work with him again," McGregor said of Christensen in an interview with Forbes earlier this week. "I'm not going to give away anything else about the storyline, only I think it’s really going to satisfy 'Star Wars' fans."
Joel Edgerton and Bonnie Piesse will once again play Luke's uncle Owen and aunt Beru, after doing so in two of the prequels, while Kumail Nanjiani, Maya Erskine, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Indira Varma and "Uncut Gems" co-director Benny Safdie also in the cast. Their roles, and much of the miniseries’ plot, have not yet been announced.
McGregor played a younger version of Kenobi, whom Alec Guinness originally portrayed, beginning with 1999's "Episode I: The Phantom Menace." The 50-year-old noted in his Forbes interview that "the reception wasn't always glowing" of the prequels, adding it "makes him really happy" to please younger generations of "Star Wars" fans, who grew up with his iteration of the character, by playing the Jedi once more.
"I always felt there was a story between 'Episode III' where I finished playing Obi-Wan in the movies and 'Episode IV' where Alec Guinness is Obi-Wan Kenobi," McGregor told the outlet, adding he thought the series' creative team "crafted a very fine storyline."
"I think people are going to like it," he said.
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