If you have had some, shall we say, critical thoughts about Obi-Wan Kenobi’s array of hairstyles in the Star Wars prequel films, you’re not alone. Ewan McGregor has had some of those thoughts too. In a new video at Entertainment Weekly, McGregor takes us on a journey—a journey of Jedi mullets, Jedi Bee Gees hair, and the false gray he no longer needs in order to suggest the white locks of the original Obi-Wan, Alec Guinness.
Whether monk or military inspired, McGregor says there’s some sort of “hairstyle sacrifice in order to be a Jedi,” and that’s where his The Phantom Menace look comes from. He also has a lot to say about the wig he had to wear for reshoots on the film—a wig that then made it into a poster.
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For Attack of the Clones, he had the full “Jedi mullet.” McGregor says, “It could be in some second-degree way a little cool, but not really. It was very mullet-y and sort of quite inspired pretty much by the Bee Gees, I think really. Jedi Bee Gees.” (When does Jedi Saturday Night Fever happen?)
But in Revenge of the Sith, the Alec Guinness consideration came into play: “We were looking at pictures of Alec Guinness in episode four and we were definitely trying to bridge that gap. We thought, this is the last we’re going to see of Obi-Wan Kenobi before he’s Alec Guinness. And so we’re sort of moving in that direction.”
What does this all mean for Ewan’s locks in Obi-Wan Kenobi? “I think it’s a man who’s been not looking after himself so much, and I wanted a much more sort of unkempt look,” McGregor says. But he also specifies this is at the beginning of the story—so perhaps another hair adventure is yet to come.
Obi-Wan Kenobi premieres on Disney+ on May 25th.
