Despite playing the Jedi Master in three Star Wars movies (and lending his voice to The Force Awakens and The Rise of Skywalker), Ewan McGregor has never shared the screen with Darth Vader. However, that's set to change in Obi-Wan Kenobi when the hero finally comes face-to-helmet with his former Padawan. Needless to say, we can't wait to see them come to blows in the series.
Talking to Games Radar, McGregor shared his reaction to appearing alongside the iconic Sith Lord for the first time. "I’ve never met Darth Vader. I had rehearsed the scene with Vader, but not with the helmet on or anything like that. When we came to do the scene, when they shouted 'action', he had to come from behind me. I turned around, and [frick]ing Darth Vader was coming at me. It was like I was six again. I’d never acted into Vader’s helmet. I’d never looked him in the eye."
"It scared the sh*t out of me," he added. "I’m not joking. It gave me a proper jolt of absolute fear. I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s not acting. That’s real. I’m really, truly frightened right now.’ And the same thing would happen with the Stormtroopers. I’d worked with Clone troopers before, but so many of them were CGI. I never worked with Stormtroopers, and, again, I was seven years old again. Because when you’re actually faced with a Stormtrooper, with a blaster, it’s like: ‘F***ing hell.'"
"It’s like actual childhood memories of being scared. That’s how deeply it’s in us," McGregor concluded. "I’ve acted for 30 years, and I’ve never been genuinely frightened when I’m acting frightened. But I had moments on this that were genuinely quite scary. It’s so funny."
Like you, our imaginations are now going into overdrive picturing Vader walking up behind Obi-Wan and igniting his lightsaber! It's fascinating to get McGregor's perspective on this, and with Hayden Christensen in the suit, McGregor will have had more than just a stuntman to work off.
We're still hoping that a new trailer is going to drop imminently, and when it does, it would be very cool to get a first look at Vader in action (without showing too much of this clash, of course).
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ with its first two episodes on May 27.