Ewan McGregor & Hayden Christensen defend the Star Wars prequels

The Star Wars prequels may have been hugely successful, but they didn’t always receive the best reviews from critics. Prequel bashing was a big thing following the release of The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith, but over the years, the fans who grew up with those films have been able to express their love for the prequel trilogy.

During the press tour for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Ewan McGregor defended the Star Wars prequels and expressed his love for fans who appreciate them.

When you step into [the Star Wars] world, it’s a big deal, it’s scary. Those films were critically not liked, or, they weren’t written very nicely about by the critics. What we didn’t hear at the time was people your age, your generation. Those people now really love our films, but it’s taken us 15 years to hear that. It’s really nice, it’s changed my relationship with Star Wars. It’s different because of that I think. We really put our heart and soul into them, and they were difficult to make.

Ewan McGregor continued: “The second one and third one, there was so much green screen and blue screen because George was pushing into this new realm that he had designed, that he was responsible for. He wanted to max out that technology, but that meant for us that we were very much on blue screens and green screens, and it was hard work. To do that and be passionate about it and then for the films to be not very well received was really tough. So it’s really lovely to have this new relationship with them now.” The actor said he watched the Star Wars prequels for the first time in a while in preparation for Obi-Wan Kenobi. He singled out Revenge of the Sith as a “really good movie.” Hayden Christensen agreed, saying that it was a “phenomenal film.“ You can check out the footage for yourself below.

The Obi-Wan Kenobi series begins 10 years after the dramatic events of Revenge of the Sith where Obi-Wan Kenobi faced his greatest defeat—the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, who turned to the dark side as the evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. The first two episodes of the series will debut on Disney+ on May 27th.