Ewan McGregor Shares His Thoughts On Kenobi Costume Element He Did Not Enjoy

The intense focus is currently on Ewan McGregor, who is set to reprise the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the upcoming Disney+ series of the same name. He has recently reminisced about his first appearance as the character in The Phantom Menace, which was released over twenty years ago in 1999. His chief observation about his time working on the film? His hair, or more specifically, the hairpiece (wig) that he had to wear for reshoots of the film. McGregor's memories of it were not great. As he was also working on another film around the same time, he was unable to wear his hair as short as was required for the role of Obi-Wan as a Jedi Padawan.

In the Jedi Order, Padawans traditionally wore their hair short with a braid at the end. This would be removed later when they successfully graduated to full knighthood. As fans may recall, after Obi-Wan was given the approval to train young Anakin Skywalker at the end of The Phantom Menace, Anakin’s hairstyle changed accordingly during the film’s finale. In Attack of the Clones, we would see the older Anakin Skywalker sporting a similar hairstyle with the braid still intact. Sometime during the Clone Wars, Anakin Skywalker was promoted to full knighthood such that in Revenge of the Sith he had a longer hairstyle with no braid. Likewise, Obi-Wan's braid disappeared by the end of The Phantom Menace, having been promoted to full knighthood by the Jedi Council after the death of Qui-Gon Jinn. In Revenge of the Sith, one of the Jedi Padawans who fought off clone troopers at the Jedi Temple could be seen sporting the same type of hairstyle with the single braid.

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In order to maintain the tradition established for the Jedi Order and being unable to get his hair in the necessary condition, McGregor had to sport a specially created wig when the cast returned for reshoots several months after the principal photography. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, McGregor revealed his strong feelings toward the particular piece of costume:

"And so they made a wig that was a short hair wig, which is the worst kind of wig. If you've got a wig, and it's long hair, you can disguise the fact that it's a wig, but when it's a short hair wig, it's a nightmare. I've seen some clips of both Episode I and the reshoots from Episode II where you're like, 'Are you kidding me?"

McGregor had thought that, since the reshoots only covered a few scenes, nobody would notice him in that uncomfortable wig. He was wrong.

"But some bright spark decided to put me on a poster in the wig! They picked an image of me from the reshoots and I saw myself in this huge poster in the wig. And I'm like, 'Are you kidding? You couldn't find a still of me when from the real shoot?' Unbelievable. I don't know who that was, but I'd love to meet them one day and just say, 'Are you [expletive] kidding me about that?"

Although we do not know if McGregor ever confronted the particular person in the marketing department who put the image of him in the wig on the movie posters, the good news is McGregor no longer needs wigs, short or otherwise, for his appearance in the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi. The series, which is set ten years following Revenge of the Sith, finds the titular character living in hiding in the endless deserts of Tatooine, a place where "proper" Jedi hair and appearance are considerably less important to his character at that point in time. After all, blending in is necessary to survive the Empire's ruthless hunt for Jedi.

READ NEXT: Will 'Obi-Wan Kenobi' Explain This 'A New Hope' Inconsistency?

Source(s): CBR

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