The Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series allowed audiences to see what the Jedi Master was up to in the years between Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope, but for many, it created a disconnect between the Ewan McGregor and Sir Alec Guinness versions of the character. Many are often shocked to find that Obi-Wan was only 57 years old when he died fighting Darth Vader in A New Hope. For many, the issue of Obi-Wan’s age is a plot hole, as he was initially seen as this old solitary man, but Star Wars made him younger than he looked in the original trilogy.
Because of Obi-Wan’s wise persona in the original trilogy, it was assumed that he was old, but once the prequels came out and solidified his age, it made audiences a little confused about how in twenty years Obi-Wan could go from looking like a young-ish Ewan McGregor to Sir Alec Guinness who was in his sixties at the time of filming. When looking at the ages of the actors, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series allowed for this old plot hole to be less severe, and not impact the character as much as it had in the past.
Kenobi’s Age Matches His Two Actors In Star Wars
While filming A New Hope, Sir Alec Guinness was 62, and Obi-Wan was supposed to be 57, which is only a 5-year age difference. In Hollywood, that’s pretty good, especially when there are people in their thirties playing high schoolers. In Revenge of the Sith, when Obi-Wan was supposed to be about 38 years old, Ewan McGregor was in his early thirties, which was a little bit more of a stretch.
In the new Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Obi-Wan is supposed to be 48 years old, and Ewan McGregor was 50, which redresses the age difference. McGregor who will turn 52 in March, is about 5 years away from how old Obi-Wan was in A New Hope. For Hollywood standards, these gaps are not too significant, especially now with all of the advancements in CGI and realistic make-up.
What Caused The Obi-Wan Kenobi Age Problem
The filmmakers did their best to age Obi-Wan as best as they could in Revenge of the Sith. They gave him a fuller beard, cut his hair, and added some twinges of grey on his temple to make him appear a bit older. The issue is that Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan in three movies that took place over 13 years, but he only aged in real life about 6 years, so making the character age so fast can be harder for audiences to accept. When McGregor started playing Obi-Wan he was within a respectable age gap from his character, but by the time Revenge of the Sith came out, that gap had significantly widened.
Another thing to consider is the difference in Hollywood expectations. Sir Alec Guinness looked like a typical man in his sixties, something that was common when the original Star Wars trilogy was shot. However, Ewan McGregor has aged incredibly well and follows the more modern Hollywood ideal of a middle-aged male movie star. With these different standards, put into the Star Wars universe it is a little harder to expect audiences to suspend their belief.
Obi-Wan Kenobi’s Disney+ Series (Kind Of) Fixed His Age Plot Hole
As previously mentioned, Ewan McGregor’s age in the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series is pretty much on par with Obi-Wan’s age at that part of the Star Wars timeline. Even though Obi-Wan definitely looks younger in the series than he does in A New Hope, the biggest difference between the two versions of the characters is their hair. If Kenobi had whiter hair like Guinness’s then McGregor would have looked much more like him.
Men’s hair can whiten fairly fast, and living on a desert planet with two suns like Tatooine, it’s not hard to figure that Obi-Wan’s hair got sun bleached in less than ten years. In Kenobi’s appearance in Star Wars Rebels, he’s mostly gone all white, but there are still tints of color in his hair when Kenobi kills Darth Maul. This also shows that the whitening of Kenobi’s hair was a years-long process that mostly took place in the later ten years of his time on Tatooine.
While it may be hard for some to see how Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi from Revenge of the Sith turns into Sir Alec Guinness in A New Hope, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, strangely makes it more feasible. In addition to his appearance, Ewan McGregor lowered his voice in pitch, showing how the character had matured in age. In the series, his voice was a perfect center point between Obi-Wan from the prequels and Obi-Wan from A New Hope.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series accomplished a lot of great feats. From giving audiences new information about Leia Organa and Obi-Wan Kenobi’s relationship, it was also an interesting character study. It also mostly solved the age gap plot hole that was created by the prequels, but mostly Revenge of the Sith. Moving forward, it may be hard to get Ewan McGregor back into the role of Obi-Wan, as he ages, and as the character has to start looking more like Sir Alex Guinness. It makes the prospect of an Obi-Wan Kenobi season 2 a little more difficult, though it would be wonderful to see Ewan McGregor play this iconic character one more time.
