Ewan McGregor: Backlash to the Star Wars prequels was quite hard to deal with

Over twenty years since he first appeared as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Ewan McGregor is returning to the role for the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series on Disney+. The first trailer for the limited-series was recently released much to the delight of fans, but as with anything related to Star Wars, you don’t have to dig very deep to find those picking apart certain elements.

The release of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace was one of the most anticipated events of 1999 but it’s safe to say that not everyone loved the movie. Although Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith fared somewhat better, the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy as a whole faced a lot of negative attention and Ewan McGregor told Entertainment Weekly that he found it difficult to deal with at the time.

I found it quite hard. For it to come out and get knocked so hard was personally quite difficult to deal with. And also, it was quite early in my career. I didn’t really know how to deal with that. I’d been involved with things that just didn’t make much of a ripple, but that’s different from making something that makes a negative ripple.

As the years have passed, the Prequel Trilogy has gained a new appreciation from fans and subsequent stories have built upon elements introduced in those movies. Hayden Christensen, who is also returning for the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, echoed McGregor’s sentiments. “When the films came out and the critics were very critical, of course that was a difficult thing,” Christensen said, “because you care so much about this thing that you’ve invested so much of yourself into. So, for sure, that’s challenging.“

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 evil Sith Lord Darth Vader. “Obi-Wan is lost,” McGregor teased. “He’s a broken man after what happened with the Jedi order at the end of Episode III, but also what happened with Anakin; that he lost him to the dark side. He feels an enormous amount of responsibility for that, and guilt.” It will debut on Disney+ on May 25, 2022.