It’s been nearly two decades since Hayden Christensen and Ewan McGregor were last seen in the Star Wars universe. And whereas McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi and Christensen’s Anakin Skywalker initially started with a supportive mentor-mentee relationship, the dynamic between the two characters changed once Anakin became Darth Vader. Disney+’s latest series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, follows up on this story with Christensen and McGregor back to reprise their roles once more.RELATED: The Cast Of Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ranked By Net WorthBefore this, it did seem as if a return from both actors was impossible. For starters, both have moved on with McGregor pursuing other movies and Christensen largely staying out of the spotlight. That said, when they reunited after all these years, it almost seems like not much time has passed. Perhaps, this might be partly due to the relationship that Christensen and McGregor share behind the scenes.

Ewan McGregor And Hayden Christensen Returned To Star Wars For The Fans

Up until Obi-Wan Kenobi, many have thought that both McGregor and Christensen have moved on from Star Wars. But then social media blew up and all of a sudden, there was this growing fanfare around the old films set in a galaxy far, far away.

“The movie critics decided not very much to like our movies, so it's taken a long time for the kids, for who we made those films for really, for their voice to be heard,” McGregor explained. “So it's a really nice feeling for me that that's the case, that I have a sense now that there's this warmth for those films. It absolutely is part of the reason I wanted to come back and play him again.”

And then, it seemed that everything just came together after that. Disney reached out to McGregor and the next thing he knew they were putting a show together.

“Disney asked me to come in one day for a meeting, because they kept seeing on social media that I’m saying that I would like to play Obi-Wan Kenobi again,” McGregor recalled. “But anyway, they got me in and asked me if I mean it. I said, yeah, I would love to play him again. I think there’s got to be a good story between Episode III and Episode IV.”

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Soon after, they got Christensen onboard. “Then I got the call saying that Deborah Chow [series executive producer and director] wanted to get together and talk about this Obi-Wan Kenobi show that she’s doing with Ewan,” the actor recalled. “I was just thrilled. This is a character that means so much to me, and to get to come back and do more with it was just a thrilling opportunity.”

Christensen also felt that the timing was right for him to revisit Star Wars. “It’s really interesting coming to this character when I’m at a different place in my life, and have a new perspective on my work,” he explained.

Hayden Christensen And Ewan McGregor Didn’t Keep In Touch All This Time

Just like that, the former co-stars were back together. And based on their onscreen chemistry, no one would even think that they haven’t been in touch for years. Having worked together for years, Christensen and McGregor became real close friends behind the scenes when first working on Star Wars together.

“We were both away from home, and we had so much training for the fights together, coupled with being on set together throughout,” McGregor said. “We were so far away from home, so we spent a lot of time together outside of work. We were really just so close.”

“‘Ewan and I became really close filming the prequels: we spent a lot of time together on and off set, and we’ve remained close over the years,” Christensen also said during a recent interview with Time Out.

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And while they haven’t really been hanging out together in recent years, working together again just felt right. “It’d been some time since we’d seen each other, so there was a bit of catching up to do, but we have so much history together that it was easy to pick up where we left off,” Christensen explained.

“And these characters have tremendous history too, so we were able to apply all that to the work.” Meanwhile, McGregor remarked, “After we’d lost touch, seeing him again was just so exciting. It’s hard to describe.”

At the moment, it doesn’t look like Obi-Wan Kenobi will have a second season (it’s supposed to be a limited series). That said, Christensen is already set to appear in the upcoming Star Wars series Ahsoka. At the same time, the actor is also open to the idea of doing a Darth Vader spinoff. “I think this is a character that sort of resonates in our culture and in a very kind of profound way,” Christensen said. “And there’s certainly more there to explore.”

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