Obi-Wan Actor Almost Could Have Been Joseph Fiennes

Ewan McGregor played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the divisive Star Wars prequels, but who else was considered for the famous role? It's been revealed that actor Joseph Fiennes (Shakespeare in Love, The Handmaid's Tale) was close to getting the role before he was passed over for something of a strange reason.

Joseph Fiennes told TheWrap that, after considering a number of actors, the list of candidates for Obi-Wan was whittled down to himself and one of his Guildhall School of Music and Drama classmates: McGregor. Fiennes auditioned in front of George Lucas and casting director Robin Gurland, and apparently it went well, at least up until that point.

After auditioning, Fiennes met with "somebody's daughter," the report said, a person who Fiennes said was a "lovely, delightful" child who might have only been five years old. But this young girl didn't approve of Fiennes, apparently. This person's daughter said, "'I don't like this guy. He's weird. I don't like him.' And that's how my audition went."

The Wrap originally reported that it was Lucas' daughter who said this, but the site has since clarified that it was not her, but instead someone else who has not been named.

Lucasfilm is now making character-specific Star Wars movies, starting with the Han Solo film in 2018. McGregor says Obi-Wan is deserving of his own film--or two--but no announcements have been made.

The next Star Wars movie is this December's The Last Jedi. Some images of the film's new characters, played by Laura Dern and Benicio del Toro, have been released--you can see them here.