Summary
- Joel Edgerton is open to returning to the Star Wars Universe if the project is “really cool.”
- He reflects on his role as Owen Lars and expresses interest in exploring the character further.
- The future of the Star Wars franchise looks promising with new movies and talented directors on board.
Joel Edgerton, the actor you may know from movies like The Gift, Warrior, and It Comes at Night, has shared details about the possibility of returning to the Star Wars Universe. The last time we saw him in the franchise was when he reprised the role of Owen Lars in the Disney+ miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi. When asked about a future return to the franchise in an upcoming project, Edgerton says, “Would I do more? I’d love to do more if it was really cool.”
Per Inverse in an in-depth interview where Edgerton promotes his new Apple TV+ series, Dark Matter, the actor and filmmaker endearingly looks back at the time when George Lucas cast him, a then-unknown Australian actor, to play a younger version of Uncle Owen in episodes II and III of the Star Wars prequels. His return to the franchise came almost 20 years later when he expanded the character in the miniseries about Kenobi.
In the interview, he doesn’t feel excited about the possibility of a spin-off about Luke Skywalker’s guardian: “Imagine how much of a snooze-fest it could possibly be if they just made a standalone series about Uncle Owen.” However, he also makes clear that, like many other fans of his character, there are unanswered questions about Owen: “Why was Owen so against Obi-Wan in the first movie? Something went down, you know?” He explained his theory as:
Owen was hiding the fact that he participated in things that he didn’t really want to share with Luke. I thought there were possibilities there to explore, and I loved the opportunity to add an extra dimension of sorts to Uncle Owen.
What is Next in the Star Wars Franchise?
After the sequel trilogy wasn’t entirely successful with fans, and Solo, the prequel about Han Solo’s character, underperformed in ticket sales, Obi-Wan Kenobi was turned from a feature film project to a Disney+ miniseries. In fact, since 2019, we haven’t seen the opening crawl or Star Wars’ typography on the big screen at all. Obi-Wan Kenobi currently stands as a limited series, as it has not yet been given a second season. If Season 2 did come around in the future, that could see Owen’s character return to screens again. As Kathleen Kennedy has said in the past, it’s not impossible for Obi-Wan Kenobi to return if the right story can be found.
Related
What Went Wrong With the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy?
The Star Wars Sequel Trilogy generated significant buzz from the franchise’s loyal fanbase. Despite spending over $1 billion on the three movies, many felt as if Disney and Lucasfilm fell short of expectations. What ultimately contributed to the trilogy’s faltering performance?
Currently, there are several big movies in development at Lucasfilm, as the company steers the Star Wars franchise back to the big screen. How this shift will impact future TV shows on Disney+ is still unclear, but the popularity of characters like Obi-Wan Kenobi makes it hard to believe there is not another outing for the Jedi Master coming at some point. While the new slate of Star Wars movies are mostly unknown in terms of plot and potential character returns, the list of directors stepping up to the camera is as strong a line-up as Lucasfilm could hope for. The talent helming the upcoming projects includes Jon Favreau, Taika Waititi, Shawn Levy, James Mangold, and Dave Filoni, among others.
Obi-Wan Kenobi
is available to stream on Disney+
