Ewan McGregor Wants to Play Obi-Wan Kenobi Again

Ewan McGregor‘s back in Scotland celebrating Trainspotting‘s 30th birthday.

The Hollywood star, famed for roles in the Star Wars prequel trilogy, Moulin Rouge!, Black Hawk Down, Down With Love, and who is currently in theaters with The End of Oak Street, spoke at an Edinburgh International Film Festival session on Friday afternoon, shortly before a party celebrating the anniversary of Danny Boyle’s 1996 film, which launched McGregor to stardom. The live event is set to host McGregor and his Trainspotting castmate Ewan Bremner, as well as producer Andrew Macdonald, screenwriter John Hodge and author Irvine Welsh for an in-depth conversation about the cult film, centered on drug addiction and urban poverty.

The conversation was hosted by Berlinale director Tricia Tuttle, who kicked off the proceedings by asking McGregor about his upbringing in Crieff and whether he feels patriotic as a Scotsman in showbiz. Over the course of 90 minutes, McGregor entertained the tightly packed crowd at Edinburgh’s Central Hall with anecdotes about working with Baz Luhrmann, making a film with his 30-year-old daughter and getting naked (which had McGregor re-enacting the moment he slipped over, nude, in front of “300 old ladies” during a stage performance of What the Butler Saw).

McGregor said he “learned a lot about not giving a shit” after his Star Wars prequels were “dragged through the mud.” Deciding whether to take on the role in the first place was “hard” because “the job of an actor is very different in those films.” However, McGregor relished the chance to return in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and admitted being surprised by the warm reaction from fans. “I never went to the conventions [after the prequel films]. Because I think I felt like people didn’t like them, and that’s okay. But when we went to do the premiere [of Obi-Wan], they played the first two episodes. I don’t know how many [but] thousands of people were behind me and I felt this rush. I had never heard that noise.”

McGregor admitted to “trying really hard” to “be a young Alec Guinness” — and found the role much easier in the TV show, when he was closer to the age of Guinness, who played the older version of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the original Star Wars trilogy. On whether he will return to the character, McGregor replied: “I hope so! I really would like to do it again because at the end of the series, […] we walked off at the end. There’s got to be a great story or two, or three, or four, or five… Maybe a series or movies.”

It was a jovial session up until McGregor became visibly emotional and had to pause to hold back tears while reflecting on working with his 30-year-old daughter, Clara, in 2023’s Bleeding Love, shortly after he’d divorced her mother (McGregor is now married to U.S. actress Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In the film, based on a story by Clara, he plays her onscreen father while her character struggles through drug addiction. “It was a very painful time, and my children were very hurt, and Clara was very hurt, and very vocal with me. She expressed her… Sorry,” he said, becoming tearful, “[That] took me by surprise! Expressed her anger and when she told me some time later, after a year or two, that she was writing a story about us, I was really scared that it was going to be something like that. When I read it, it was so beautiful and moving, and about the reparation of a relationship between a father and a daughter that hadn’t fully happened yet between us.”

Time dwindled as McGregor told Tuttle about what he looks for in a director and the journey of becoming a director himself with 2016’s American Pastoral. He expressed hope at one day making a movie in his native Scotland. Then came questions from the audience, which allowed the conversation to get even sillier (much to McGregor’s and the audience’s delight).

So, would McGregor consider playing James Bond? “Disappointingly, I never hear my name mentioned in all of the [discourse] at the moment,” he said, prompting laughter. “I might just have missed that boat. Maybe they’ll be looking for somebody a bit younger, as you could imagine. But I would have [liked to play Bond]. That’s a fascinating role. The idea of playing that world is something I haven’t really done.”

McGregor was quizzed on his motorbike documentary series Long Way... (2004-present) with best friend Charley Boorman, and even confirmed the pair will be embarking on a trip across the Atlantic in two weeks on a vintage Oyster yacht.

The 2026 Edinburgh International Film Festival runs Aug. 13-19. Industry events have included talks with Christine Vachon and Ken Burns.