The return of Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor to the world of Star Wars is something I’ve waited for since I was a teenager. I was lucky enough to grow up with the prequels and so, for me, having the actors return for the Disney+ Obi-Wan Kenobi series is like a dream come true. But it wasn’t always like that for everyone. Christensen and McGregor knew their fair share of hatred throughout the years because of how critics and other fans reacted to the prequel series.
And it felt like those of us who loved it so completely were lost in the sea of angry voices, but now, as the press tour for Obi-Wan Kenobi has begun, the two have been seeing just how much their movies meant to so many of us.
“Because I guess you were a kid when those films came out… So we made them for you and it was an odd experience to make those movies… You know, like Moses [Ingram] said, when you step into this world it’s a big deal, it’s scary. And those films were critically not liked very much. They weren’t written very nicely about by the critics,” McGregor shared during a promotional event for the new series (thanks to ComicBook.com). “But what we didn’t hear at the time was people your age, your generation. We meet those people now that really love our films, but it’s taken us 15 years for us to hear that. But it’s so nice, it’s really nice. It changed my outlook, my relationship with Star Wars it’s different because of that, I think.”
“It’s taken us fifteen years to hear that,” McGregor said, and for whatever reason, it truly made me emotional. Maybe it’s because I was part of the generation that wanted them to know what these movies meant to us. Maybe it’s the part of me that still loves Revenge of the Sith unconditionally because I was so obsessed with it as a young 13-year-old. Or maybe it’s just because I could always tell how much both McGregor and Christensen liked being in Star Wars that it just feels so nice to know they see now how beloved they are.
When I spoke to Hayden Christensen at New York Comic-Con, it felt special getting to tell him what those movies meant to me. And I hope that feeling continues when I meet McGregor at Star Wars Celebration because really they did help shape me into the Star Wars fan that I am today.
Star Wars constantly belongs to a new generation
One of the things I think that people forget is that Star Wars is meant to inspire hope in new generations, so it is geared towards children and that’s why there are such big divides between the different parts of the franchise. For me, I grew up with brothers who loved the original trilogy and took me to see the movies during the rerelease in the ’90s, but the prequels were mine. They were movies that I was seeing for the first time, and no one else had seen them before. I could make my own opinions and I could find the things I loved about Star Wars without anyone telling me what was cool or not cool.
I fell in love with Anakin’s story. I wanted him to listen to reason despite knowing what was going to happen. I wanted Obi-Wan Kenobi to continue to have a relationship with Anakin and the two to be there for each other. I knew what happened. I knew what the future held for Anakin and Obi-Wan, but that didn’t stop me from loving them.
People were so aggressively mean about them (and mean to those of us who liked them) because they thought they knew what Star Wars was supposed to be. But the reality is that Star Wars belongs to everyone, and for every generation, there’s been a new story to tell. So my love of the prequels shouldn’t take away from anyone else’s Star Wars journey, but I am happy that both Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen have gotten to see what their films meant to us as fans of this franchise.
(image: Gareth Cattermole/Getty Images for Disney)
