The Star Wars franchise is revisiting none other than Obi-Wan Kenobi for an upcoming limited series on Disney+, with Ewan McGregor to reprise the role he first took on in Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace. In The Phantom Menace, Obi-Wan was partnered with Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn, so it was only natural that fans began to speculate that Neeson's Qui-Gon could turn up in McGregor's new show. Now, Neeson has weighed in, but should fans trust his comments?
As Star Wars fans know, Liam Neeson's Qui-Gon Jinn unfortunately came to an early end before the conclusion of The Phantom Menace courtesy of Darth Maul and what was left of his double-bladed lightsaber, but death was never enough to stop a skilled Jedi from coming back in Star Wars movies. So why shouldn't the same be true for a Star Wars TV show? Liam Neeson's comments on Jimmy Kimmel Live, however, indicate that he won't be reprising the role for Obi-Wan Kenobi. Neeson said:
Yeah, I heard Ewan McGregor was gonna do a series. No, I don't think so, no. I haven't been approached. They don't have enough [money].
Liam Neeson was laughing as he made the crack about the show not having enough money for him, and Jimmy Kimmel immediately followed up by noting that Neeson is such a good actor that he could "easily be lying" and "we would have no idea." Neeson had no comment for that, but continued laughing. The star has flat-out denied even being approached for the Obi-Wan series, but he also laughed throughout. Could that mean that we shouldn't take him at his word that Qui-Gon won't be in the mix with Ewan McGregor again?
Well, Liam Neeson was on a late night talk show talking with a comedian, so it's really to be expected that he'd be laughing, and Jimmy Kimmel wasn't exactly giving him the third degree. Plus, Qui-Gon is pretty definitively dead, even though Maul was the one who was cut in two in their climactic Phantom Menace duel. And yet...
Ewan McGregor lied for a while to cover up the fact that he was going to return to play Obi-Wan again, although he generally made it clear that he was leaving the door open to return to Star Wars someday. If McGregor could keep his return secret and deliver an epic surprise for fans with the announcement, isn't it possible that Liam Neeson could be covering for a surprise appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi? As Jimmy Kimmel noted, Neeson is a good enough actor to pull it off. And The Mandalorian managed to keep Mark Hamill's return a secret!
Plus, if Obi-Wan Kenobi is somehow bringing Hayden Christensen back as Darth Vader despite Christensen's Anakin getting burnt to a crisp and then installed into the iconic Vader suit, then I can believe that the show could find a way to include Qui-Gon if there was a way to bring Liam Neeson back. I'm not sure that I do believe that this is going to happen, but I'm not going to rule it out until the final credits roll on the final episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi.
At the very least, the possibility of Liam Neeson turning up could be fun to speculate about for the foreseeable future, as Obi-Wan Kenobi won't be debuting on Disney+ until 2022. The Book of Boba Fett will be the next live-action Star Wars series to hit the Disney streamer.
