Joel Edgerton’s career has come a long way since he first showed up as Uncle Owen for a couple scenes in the Star Wars prequels. He went from making indie thrillers (very good ones) with his brother Nash in Australia to being an actual movie star in Hollywood. And he apparently used some of that clout to very slightly expand Uncle Owen’s role in last year’s Obi-Wan Kenobi series: by getting him a bit of a fight scene with Moses Ingram’s Inquisitor Reva.
While the character didn’t get a ton of screen time back in the day in the original film when he was played by Phil Brown, it was impossible to forget Uncle Owen–he was one of the first Star Wars characters we ever met, and he and Aunt Beru were the characters who had to die so Luke Skywalker would have a reason not just to leave home but to fight against the Empire.
On the Obi-Wan Kenobi limited series, we got to spend more time with Uncle Owen than ever before, during his appearances in the premiere episode and the finale. During both episodes, Owen has to face down Inquisitor Reva–first in Mos Eisley, in public, and then in the finale when Reva is attempting to murder Luke Skywalker at the Lars homestead. And it sounds like Owen put up more of a fight than the show’s producers and writers had originally planned.
“Everybody thinks that Uncle Owen is a grumbly, cantankerous ‘say no’ dude. I was like, ‘This is my opportunity to put a bit more context on that, and have people maybe like him a little bit more.’ And I think we did that,” Edgerton told NME. But he said he had one big request.
“My one caveat to them was, ‘I know what you’re planning with the story and how it unfolds, and I’m not asking for more screen time, I just want to do something cool. Can I at least have one fight? Can I at least throw my hessian sleeves up and get into one brawl?'”
In the finale episode, when Reva comes for Luke, Owen bravely stands in her path–though of course he’s not a trained fighter or Force user like Reva is, and so it ends up being more of a stalling maneuver than your normal Star Wars fight scene.
“I was like, ‘I have never had a fight with a woman before on screen’. And I sort of–spoilers aside–get to lose. How cool is that?” Edgerton enthused.
Edgerton wasn’t entirely enthusiastic about the idea of returning to the character at first, though.
“To be honest, I was a little bit… not snobbish, but reticent in regards to going, ‘I’ve done this before’. I’ve always joked that Uncle Owen is the most boring character in Star Wars history because he’s a moisture farmer and he doesn’t get to wield a lightsaber. And I’m always cheeky about the way I talk about Uncle Owen!”
After showing some backbone while standing up to Inquisitor Reva, though, Uncle Owen isn’t so boring anymore.
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