Ewan McGregor's uncle tried to talk him out of Star Wars

Ewan McGregor's uncle tried to persuade the actor not to sign up for Star Wars, because he didn't have a great experience in the first three movies.

Denis Lawson portrayed Wedge Antilles in A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi in the late 1970s and early 1980s, but allegedly didn't enjoy his time on set of George Lucas' iconic sci-fi movies, which also starred Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill and the late Carrie Fisher.

And when McGregor was offered the role of Obi-Wan Kenobi in the prequels, Lawson urged him to pass.

"My uncle is in all three of those original films... and he'd always been pretty dismissive of it, because he did a couple of weeks' work, sitting in a cardboard spaceship in Elstree (studios), or whatever they shot them in London, and yet he had this massive following - and it sort of annoyed him.

"He was one of the people who said, 'Don't do it!'"

But Ewan ignored his uncle's advice and went on to appear as the legendary Jedi Master in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999, followed by Episode II – Attack of the Clones in 2002, and finally Episode III – Revenge of the Sith in 2005.

"The nearer I got to it, the more I wanted to do it," he tells Today. "I'm so glad I did, because it's so interesting to be part of that."

McGregor is set reprise his Obi-Wan Kenobi character for an upcoming spin-off Star Wars series for streaming site Disney+.

Production on the new series has reportedly been halted indefinitely over script issues, according to Collider.