Ewan McGregor, Hayden Christensen Surprise Audience at Star Wars Celebration’s ‘Attack of the Clones’ Panel

Star Wars Celebration 2022 has essentially been built around two pieces of franchise lore: the brand new Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Star Wars: Episode II — Attack of the Clones, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. And honestly, Disney and Lucasfilm and everyone else involved with the way time works could not have planned this better, because those two entries in this canon are inextricably tied. Attack of the Clones featured Hayden Christensen’s debut as Anakin Skywalker, and Obi-Wan — which hosted its premiere at the convention — features Christensen’s and McGregor’s return to a galaxy far, far away. That’s why, knowing that the two stars were around for Obi-Wan premiere reasons, everyone who attended the Attack of the Clones 20th anniversary panel had to assume that the master and Padawan would be there, too. They all guessed right.

Okay — we all guessed right, but Star Wars Celebration made us wait for it.

McGregor and Christensen didn’t take the stage until 3/4ths of the way through the hourlong panel, but the crowd definitely did not mind. After talking to the initial panel — Anthony Daniels (C-3PO), Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett), Daniel Logan (Boba Fett), concept design supervisor Doug Chiang, visual effects supervisor John Knoll, and supervising sound editor Matthew Wood — moderator Ashley Eckstein (a.k.a. the voice of Ahsoka Tano) realized that they’d yet to talk about some of the film’s most intense fight scenes. Who could she possibly bring out on stage to talk about those scenes? Oh — Ewan McGregor and Hayden Christensen.

When asked about the fight on Camino, the one between Jango and Obi-Wan in a torrential downpour, McGregor says he really only remembers that his stunt double Nash Edgerton (brother of Joel Edgerton, who played Uncle Owen in the film) got injured doing a stunt. Temuera Morrison just remembered that his stunt double was offstage “eating biscuits.”

The Camino fight wasn’t actually the scene that McGregor remembered filming the clearest. It was, in fact, a scene with 13-year-old Daniel Logan. McGregor says that in the scene when Obi-Wan meets Boba Fett, director George Lucas wanted Logan to play the moment as if he was suspicious of the Jedi. When Logan couldn’t get a grip on what Lucas was asking for, Ewan crouched down and told Logan, “When I open the door, act like I let out a huge fart.” The advice worked!

Talking about their relationship, Christensen said it came naturally because he really looked up to Ewan. “Ewan was so gracious with me, he took me under his wing,” said Christensen, who’s reunited with McGregor for Obi-Wan Kenobi. “The friendship evolved, and that came naturally.” McGregor added, “We just got on straight away.” It should be pointed out that all weekend long, just the mention of Hayden Christensen has sent crowds into rapturous applause. Imagine how intense it was when this crowd actually saw the man.

McGregor said that the two of them really bonded during fight rehearsals. “To fight each other, you have to trust each other to not make the wrong move because you can hurt each other. The lightsabers were made of metal,” said McGregor. “The lightsabers were bent after every take. If you get that wrong, you hurt each other.”

The panel closed with a round of thanks for George Lucas, the man who created the world that we’re celebrating at Star Wars Celebration. “Getting to work with George Lucas and help him bring this character to life was the greatest honor of my career,” said Christensen of Anakin Skywalker, who he now gets to play as Darth Vader.

“I don’t even know if George can describe what he created,” said McGregor of the creator. “He made us this world that when I was 7 years old, changed our lives. And we still want more stories in this world because we love it.”

But honestly, it might be Anthony Daniels who has the best anecdote about Lucas and how much he appreciates the man. Daniels says that he’d always show up to set at the beginning of the day already in his full C-3PO suit. When Lucas would see the golden droid walk on set, Daniels would often hear George say, “Now Star Wars has arrived.”