Ewan McGregor will finally return to a Galaxy Far, Far Away when he returns as the titular Jedi Master in Obi-Wan Kenobi. Over the coming weeks, we anticipate hearing much more from the actor about that experience, but would you believe he nearly walked away from the show with a camel?
As part of "Ben" Kenobi's isolated existence on Tatooine, he befriends a native Eopie. A camel-like creature with a penchant for breaking wind, something tells us it will be a source of humour in the show. For McGregor, his co-star with one he struck up an unexpected bond with while shooting.
"I really, really liked him," the actor confesses in an interview with Empire Online. "I don’t know how Silas felt about me. I had a great trainer who called me ‘Cowboy’ all the time. ‘Come on, Cowboy!’ It’s nice for a Scottish person to be called Cowboy all day. Silas, he’s brilliant."
"When I deliver Luke to Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru on Tatooine at the very end of Episode III, I was riding a f***ing blue gym horse," the actor recalled with a laugh, reflecting on the prequels. "I had to just sit on it and pretend to be [rocks from side to side]. I had mates there – ‘It’s a big moment, come on set, we’ll watch the last [scene]...’ And there’s a blue gym horse. I’m like, ‘Are you kidding?’ I had to pretend to lope in on it, take the baby over, and then get back on the other way around."
"The trainer could see that I really liked the camel, and he said, ‘He’s almost finished his career. He’s 20-something years old, and we’re looking for a forever home for him.' I was like, ‘Oh, don’t tell me that.’ I’ll come home with a camel like, ‘Hey, guys! We can have a camel in the garden can’t we?’"
Alas, it doesn't sound as if McGregor was able to take him home, but he clearly came close. It's interesting to hear how difficult it was for the actor to shoot those CG-heavy scenes in the Star Wars prequels, though that's not a surprise when it's become a frequent complaint among those who worked on them. With Obi-Wan Kenobi, we're guessing he only really had to deal with The Volume.
That's a lot easier than sets that are almost entirely green or blue, of course, and he even got to spend time with a real camel! We'll see them in action together when the show arrives on May 27.