Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow thanks George Lucas for casting Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen and setting up his eventual Star Wars return. The Golden Globe nominee made his franchise debut in Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones as Owen Lars, Anakin Skywalker’s stepbrother living on Tatooine with his girlfriend Beru Whitesun and his father Cliegg, a moisture farmer who had freed Anakin’s mother from slavery only for her to have been kidnapped by Tusken Raiders. After being left by Anakin, who returned his mother’s corpse to the family, Owen would return at the end of Star Wars: Episode III — Attack of the Clones as Obi-Wan Kenobi tasked the couple with caring for Anakin’s infant son Luke with Beru, having married her in the years between films.
Obi-Wan Kenobi picks up a decade after the prequel trilogy closer as Obi-Wan continues to live on Tattooine in exile following the devastating Order 66 and distantly watches over the young Luke while also contending with the Jedi-hunting Inquisitors. Edgerton returns for the Disney+ series alongside Ewan McGregor in the titular role, Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Bonnie Piesse as Beru. With production having run from May to September 2021, those behind Obi-Wan Kenobi are gearing up for the long-awaited arrival of the McGregor-led solo story.
With just a couple of months remaining until the show’s premiere, Obi-Wan Kenobi director Deborah Chow caught up with Entertainment Weekly to discuss the new Star Wars series. When discussing the return of Joel Edgerton’s Uncle Owen, Chow thanked franchise creator George Lucas for originally casting him in the role and helping leave the door open for his eventual return, though kept her lips sealed on what’s to come from the character. See what Chow shared below:
“Thank you, George, for casting Joel Edgerton as Uncle Owen. That’s all I can say.”
Edgerton’s casting as Uncle Owen for George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels came early in the actor’s career and marked his first major Hollywood project after starring in a number of Australian films and the indie dramedy Race the Sun. Though a minor role in the context of the prequels, many Star Wars fans found themselves hopeful for the Golden Globe nominee to return upon confirmation that Obi-Wan Kenobi would explore the Jedi’s time on Tatooine watching over Luke Skywalker as he’s being raised by Owen. Though details are still largely being kept under wraps for the extent of his role in the series, the first Obi-Wan Kenobi images reveled Edgerton’s Uncle Owen facing off against Moses Ingram’s Inquisitor Reva at some point in the story.
The return of Edgerton’s Uncle Owen for Obi-Wan Kenobi does create the potential for an interesting new dynamic to be revived from the non-canon expanded universe of Star Wars stories between he and the titular character. In the Star Wars comics, Owen largely blamed Obi-Wan for Anakin’s death and refused to allow the Jedi to visit the young Luke or allow him to train him in the ways of the Force. Only time will tell if the show explores this complex relationship when Obi-Wan Kenobi hits Disney+ on May 25.
