With all the Star Wars shows heading to Disney+, it’s fair that Star Wars fans will want to see as many familiar faces as they can cram into these shows. The Mandalorian has done a wonderful job of introducing new faces and re-introducing some familiar elements as well. And with the upcoming Obi-Wan Kenobi series, it’s absolutely ripe for old characters to appear.
Hayden Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) is among the bigger characters confirmed to appear in the series. But one person who Disney hasn’t reported coming on board the show is Liam Neeson, who plays none other than Kenobi’s mentor, Qui-Gon Jinn.
In a previous interview, Neeson did say he’d be interested in returning to Star Wars. But in a recent interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live (via Entertainment Weekly), the actor decided to squash those rumors about him appearing in the series. Neeson told Kimmel when asked about being in the series:
"Yes, I heard Ewan McGregor was gonna do a series. No, I don’t think so. No, I haven’t been approached. They don’t have enough money."
Will we see Liam Neeson in the Obi-Wan series?
It’s good to see Neeson has a healthy sense of humor about this all. But as Kimmel mentioned in the interview, Liam Neeson is such a great actor that who knows? He probably could be pulling another stunt in front of us right now, hiding the fact that he may secretly be working on the series.
Entertainment Weekly noted that this isn’t a rare occurrence, for an actor (particularly working on a top-secret Disney project) to deny any involvement — just for them to actually be involved in some sort of way.
So, we’ll still be holding out hope that Qui-Gon Jinn can appear in some way. Recently, there was a little fact that was revealed that inspires hope for a Qui-Gon appearance. At some point in Obi-Wan Kenobi’s exile, he was able to reconnect with Qui-Gon, via his master appearing as a Force ghost. This bit of information seemed like the perfect setup for Qui-Gon to appear in the series, possibly to offer counsel to his former Padawan during these trying times.
Of course, we can’t say for sure if that’s how it’ll be or if he’ll even appear in the series at all. But we’re sure Disney and Lucasfilm will have some surprises up their sleeves for the series, and we can’t wait to see them!