Lucasfilm is getting ready to start shooting the Obi-Wan Kenobi series and Ewan McGregor is ready to get to work on it and he’s been preparing for some action with “two-and-a-half-hour sessions of sword fights and hand-to-hand stuff”.

As you know, the actor played a young version of Kenobi in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequels. There are a lot of fans that loved those prequel films, but there are other fans that don’t like them at all. I have a newfound respect for those prequel films since the sequel trilogy was released.

For those of you who aren’t fans of the prequel films, you’ll be happy to learn that the Obi-Wan Kenobi series will feel so much more real than the prequels. In a recent interview with THR, McGregor admits that the poor reception to the Star Wars prequels from fans was hard to accept saying, “That was quite difficult. They were universally not very much liked.”

Regardless, he’s excited to be a part of the new Star Wars series saying,“I’m really excited about it. Maybe more so than the first ones, because I’m older — I just turned 50 — and I’m just in a much better place.”

The actor goes to talk about the time he spent working with George Lucas and his frustration regarding the production and Lucas’ love for his new filmmaking tech. McGregor explains:

“[George Lucas] wanted more and more control over what we see in the background. After three or four months of [being surrounded by blue screens], it just gets really tedious — especially when the scenes are … I don’t want to be rude, but it’s not Shakespeare. There’s not something to dig into in the dialogue that can satisfy you when there’s no environment there. It was quite hard to do.”

Yeah, the writing in that film was not very good, and there’s only so much the actors can do to try and make it sound good while delivering their lines. While McGregor was frustrated with the tech, he is happy with the new StageCraft technology being used to create the series. It’s here that he says the series is going to feel more real than the prequels:

“They project [the virtual backgrounds] onto this massive LED screen. So if you’re in a desert, you’re standing in the middle of a desert. If you’re in the snow, you’re surrounded by snow. And if you’re in a cockpit of a starfighter, you’re in space. It’s going to feel so much more real.”

The series begins 10 years after the events of Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith where Kenobi faced his greatest defeat, the downfall and corruption of his best friend and Jedi apprentice, Anakin Skywalker turned evil Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Hayden Christensen will return as Darth Vader, and they will be joined by Joel Edgerton, Bonnie Piesse, Moses Ingram, Kumail Nanjiani, Indira Varma, Rupert Friend, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Sung Kang, Simone Kessell, and Benny Safdie.

When asked if any other Skywalker characters would pop up in the series, McGregor said, “That’s very possible. I don’t know.”

Deborah Chow (Better Call Saul, American Gods, The Mandalorian) will direct the series as well as serve as showrunner, with Hossein Amini (Drive, McMafia) and Joby Harold (John Wick 3, Awake, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) writing.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is executive-produced by Kathleen Kennedy, Michelle Rejwan, Chow, McGregor, and Harold. The series is expected to arrive on Disney+ sometime in 2022.