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Dave Filoni Wants Ewan McGregor To Voice Obi Wan On Star Wars Rebels

By Elaine Tveit

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Dave Filoni wants Ewan McGregor to voice Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars Rebels.

While speaking to BANG Showbiz, the creator and director of Star Wars Rebels said McGregor was on his “radar” to reprise his role on the show (via Yahoo!).

Dave Filoni, director of Clone Wars, the seventh Star Wars film to reach theaters. Photographed may 2, 2008. The director, is the first fanboy to get his hands on the franchise. 137666.CA.0521.clone (Photo by Spencer Weiner/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

Technically, Obi Wan Kenobi has already made an appearance on the show, as a hologram recording on a Jedi holocron in season one. At that early stage, he was voiced by voice actor extraordinaire James Arnold Taylor, who portrayed Obi Wan in all six seasons of The Clone Wars.

Regarding Taylor’s recording for Star Wars Rebels, Filoni said,

"“I do have a unique situation with Obi-Wan as James Arnold Taylor was my Obi-Wan in ‘Clone Wars’ for a long time so I used him early on in ‘Star Wars Rebels’, that was meant as a nod to people who had watched that animated series.”"

But for other cameos from classic Star Wars characters in Rebels, Filoni has had success with getting the original actors to reprise their roles, as with James Earl Jones as Darth Vader and Frank Oz as Yoda.

"“We’re interested in anybody, really, that performed in the films, it’s always great to have that direct tie and to have people that have portrayed the character before."

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Ewan McGregor has said many times he wants to return to the Star Wars franchise as Obi Wan, so this may be the perfect opportunity for him to fulfill that wish (though, to be honest, I’d rather have an Obi Wan Kenobi live action standalone film).

I have mixed feelings about Ewan possibly voicing Obi Wan in Rebels. I’d love to hear the original young Obi Wan voice again, but at the same time I’ve come to know and love James Arnold Taylor as an official actor for the character in his own right. He did voice Obi Wan throughout the entirety of The Clone Wars, in addition to the Genny Tartakovsky Clone Wars micro series from 2005 and countless video games. It’s sad that he might not be able to reprise the role ever again when he’s done such a great job for so long.

However, at this point he’s played Obi Wan for longer than McGregor, so maybe it’s time to give the Scottish actor his turn in the Star Wars spotlight again.

Next: Is This The Title Of Star Wars: Episode VIII?

Stay tuned for further updates on Ewan McGregor’s return to Star Wars and whatever form it takes.

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