Scary Good

With The Shining sequel, Doctor Sleep, a return to the iconic role of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and a now-on-track personal life, EWAN McGREGOR is back on top—again.

- Mickey Rapkin

IRON MAN IS EATING A HOT DOG. The Little Mermaid is charging her cell phone. And I am lost.

It’s late August and I’ve come to Anaheim, California, for D23—a three-day event where Disney executives will announce programming for the company’s new Netflix killer, Disney+, a streaming service launching in November. Some 7,000 fans (many in costume) are seated inside a convention center, waiting for their favorite stars to come out on stage and wave. It’s like Comic-Con for anyone who gets a boner for Donald Duck. Or maybe it’s the world’s most expensive pep rally.

And everyone is playing ball. Among the boldfaced names I see: Marvel president Kevin Feige; Avengers stars Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany; Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi; and funnyman Billy Eichner and Anna Kendrick, his co-star in Noelle, a new comedy about what happens to Christmas when Santa Claus has a nervous breakdown. Meanwhile, everyone’s talking about Angelina Jolie and whether she’ll show up to promote Marvel’s The Eternals.

As for me, I’m supposed to meet Ewan McGregor somewhere in the bowels of this cavernous hall. If he’s hard to find, that’s by design. The dude’s been instructed to make himself scarce, lest he spoil today’s big surprise. The internet’s been rife with speculation for weeks, but he’s about to make it official: After a 15-year absence from the Star Wars universe, McGregor is set to reprise his role as Obi-Wan Kenobi in a new TV series.

“It’s a fucking massive relief,” he tells me when I’m finally ushered into his trailer. “Because for four years, I’ve been having to lie to people about it.”