Ewan McGregor telling everyone who will listen how excited he is to be returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi for the upcoming Disney Plus Star Wars TV series. There was a time, though, when McGregor was less enthused about his place in a galaxy, far, far away, or at least was more bemused by the whole thing. Yes, we’re talking about the time McGregor heard the title Star Wars: Attack of the Clones.
A red carpet camera crew thankfully immortalised this genuinely iconic moment for us all to enjoy. McGregor was receiving an award for his role in the musical Moulin Rouge when a CNN reporter told him that the film was going to be titled “Attack of the Clones”.
His reaction is probably charitably described as bemused at best and downright horrified at worst. In the short clip, he can barely hold back his laughter as he asks the journalist if “that’s real” before saying “he doesn’t know about that”. In a separate video, McGregor shares a laugh with his Moulin Rouge co-star Nicole Kidman about the title before asking: “Is that better than the Phantom Menace?”
Check out McGregor’s reaction here:
With an impending title announcement for #EpisodeIX and the giggles still audible from the stalls about #WandaVision 😂, I think there's no better time to revisit Ewan McGregor's reaction to Attack of the Clones.https://t.co/yM17vmRvWm
— Matt Rodgers 🕯 (@MainstreamMatt) April 12, 2019
please enjoy Ewan McGregor hearing "ATTACK OF THE CLOHNES" for the first time while we wait
this is a god damn classic pic.twitter.com/8Vk8pkyCgu
— Brendan Hodges (@metaplexmovies) February 5, 2019
IGN actually reported that McGregor called the film’s title “terrible”, but we can’t find a video of that so take it with a pinch of salt. Honestly, though, if nothing else, these refreshing clips show how laid back PR reps were about coverage back in the early 2000s. We can’t imagine a modern-day Star Wars character being able to laugh at a title on camera these days.
Also, in fairness to McGregor, he was far from the only person to malign the title, Attack of Clones. Contemporary reports from the time show that fans were disappointed with the title A CNN survey from 2002 showed that 57% of visitors disliked the name, while an IGN poll had 63% not liking or hating the name. Some things never change, I guess Star Wars fans have always hated Star Wars…