Obi-Wan Kenobi's Ewan McGregor confirms Luke Skywalker originally had a much bigger role

Star Wars' Ewan McGregor has confirmed that Luke Skywalker originally had a bigger part in Obi-Wan Kenobi.

The recent Disney+ TV series featured Jedi master Kenobi jetting off around space to rescue Princess Leia, running into his old friend Anakin Skywalker – now turned into Darth Vader – along the way.

There were reports that the series was originally developed as a film or trilogy of films, focusing on Obi-Wan staying on Tatooine and protecting Luke from Tusken Raiders or some other threat.

Related: Star Wars' Ewan McGregor explains why he thought the prequels were panned

Speaking at Fan Expo Boston over the weekend (via ComicBook.com), McGregor confirmed that that was initially the case, explaining: "It was going to be a story about me and Luke. It was always going to be that, and that was one of the genius moments where everyone went, 'Wait a minute', and then changed it.

"That's the beautiful thing about how passionate Disney, Lucasfilm, all of us are, who are involved with it.

"I think it's really cool that Disney and Lucasfilm care so much for the fan experience. They really want you to have a 100% experience the first time you see it, and if you've read that, and that leaked, and this came out, it's just a bit of a shame isn't it? It's like looking at your Christmas presents before Christmas Day."

Stuart Beattie, who wrote the script when the project was set for the big screen, confirmed that it was the poor performance of Solo: A Star Wars Story at the box office that caused Disney to re-think their strategy.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is streaming on Disney+. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker and the entire Skywalker Saga are available on DVD, Blu-ray and 4K now, as well as on Disney+.

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Joe Anderton

Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.