Obi-Wan Kenobi star Ewan McGregor shares why he is excited to return the Star Wars universe

Ewan McGregor entered the Star Wars universe back in 1999 when he first appeared as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first entry to the Star Wars prequel trilogy, The Phantom Menace. Now, he is reprising his role again some 16 years later, and he recently shared why he is excited about returning. 

In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, McGregor acknowledges how fans' initial reception of The Phantom Menace made him feel, saying: "[It] was hard they didn't get well received. That was quite difficult. They were universally not very much liked."

A lot of time has passed since the debut of the prequel trilogy, and there have been more new and compelling stories being told in the Star Wars universe, and fans seem to be way more receptive to these newer entries than they had been in the past. Star Wars fans have been overwhelmingly supportive of the Disney Plus series, The Mandalorian, which possibly played some part in getting McGregor excited to return to the universe.

He went on to say, "I'm really excited about it...Maybe more so than the first ones, because I'm older – I just turned 50 – and I'm just in a much better place."

In addition to McGregor reprising his role, so is Hayden Christensen who is reprising his role as Darth Vader in the new series. The rest of the cast includes Moses Ingram, Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie. 

The series was reportedly to begin production this month and is still slated to make its debut sometime next year on Disney Plus.