Liam Neeson has shared a sweet interaction his son had when visiting him on The Phantom Menace set. The actor played Qui-Gon Jinn in the Star Wars prequel film.
Ahead of his co-star Ewan McGregor reprising his role for the Disney Plus series Obi-Wan Kenobi, Neeson was quizzed about his time on the film. In a chat with Screen Rant, he shared his memories of filming the movie back in 1998 in London.
This included a particularly adorable moment his son Michael had with R2-D2. He explained: "I'll tell you a funny story. My son, Michael, was two. His nanny brought him out to visit me on set and it was lunchtime. I held him in my arms and took him around the set and there was R2-D2, just sitting parked."
"My son looked at this strange piece of metal, in my arms, and just went, '[stretches arms out],'" Neeson continued. "So I had to let him down and he waddled over and started hugging R2-D2."
Neeson revealed that his son had never seen Star Wars at that point, but had clearly connected with the beloved droid. Calling the moment "very sweet", the Taken actor also shared that director George Lucas was not surprised by the interaction when they discussed it later.
He added: "I remember telling George Lucas after lunch, I said, 'I brought my son on. He had to go down and hug R2-D2 and it was really touching.' And George said, 'Yeah. R2-D2 has that effect on kids.'"
Neeson is not thought to be returning for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, after his character’s heartbreaking death, but some other aspects have been teased about the show. Check out our guide to everything revealed so far about Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The series will be released on Disney Plus on May 27 with the first two episodes. In the meantime, here’s the latest on all the upcoming Star Wars movies you need to know about. If you haven't already, you can also subscribe to Disney Plus here.
