It happened again. The Star Wars rumor mill cranked up, spun out something shiny, and a bunch of people swallowed it whole without even glancing at the ingredients list. This time, the “breaking news” was that Ewan McGregor had confirmed he’d be returning as Obi-Wan Kenobi in Ahsoka Season 2. Cue the headlines, the reposts, the “Oh my God!” reactions — all off a claim with zero actual sourcing.
I’m not trying to be mean here, but my friend Edward over at Small Screen posted it like it was gospel: “McGregor confirms!” Except… no. What McGregor actually said was that he likes watching his wife, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, play Hera in Ahsoka. He mentioned she’s currently filming Season 2. He talked about FaceTiming her on set. He called her a “very beautiful green lady.” And then — and this is the key part — he said if the powers-that-be wanted him back in Star Wars, he’d be there in a heartbeat.
That’s it. That’s the whole quote. No, “I’m filming right now.” No, “I’m in Ahsoka.” No sly wink about keeping secrets. Just a man saying he’d happily return if asked. Somehow, that morphed into “confirmed for Ahsoka Season 2!” and people just… ran with it.
And this is where I get tired. This isn’t the first time the fandom’s jumped on a rumor like a starving Rancor on a Twi’lek. It happens constantly — fake posters on Facebook, “exclusive leaks” with zero citations, and YouTubers pushing “scoops” because it’ll get the clicks, never mind the accuracy. We’ve seen it before with “confirmed” Boba Fett movies, “definitely happening” Old Republic trilogies, and at least three different “Sebastian Stan is Luke Skywalker” headlines over the last decade. It’s the same play every time.
It took me all of five minutes to fact-check this. I even asked Grok about it — yes, AI can be wrong, but even it said the claim was shaky. Then you look at the actual Fan Expo Boston Q&A transcript, and the supposed “confirmation” is nowhere to be found. Yet that didn’t stop dozens of pages, blogs, and accounts from parroting it like it came straight from Lucasfilm.
And here’s the thing — I do think we’ll see McGregor back in Star Wars eventually. Filoni’s building toward a big Heir to the Empire event, and I wouldn’t be shocked if we get all the digital necromancy: deepfake Luke, Leia, Han, maybe even Chewbacca. They’ve already brought Hayden Christensen back. Technology’s getting to the point where they can recreate these legacy characters indefinitely. But that’s different from claiming something is “confirmed” when it’s clearly not.
The bigger issue is that this kind of careless reporting muddies the waters. Fans get their hopes up, then get pissed when it doesn’t happen, and somehow that frustration gets aimed at Lucasfilm. The actors, meanwhile, have to answer awkward questions about projects they were never involved in to begin with. All because someone didn’t take ten minutes to check a source.
Look, speculation is part of the fun — Star Wars thrives on it. But we’ve got to stop turning wishful thinking into headlines. Otherwise, the only thing we’re confirming is that we’re willing to be fooled over and over again. And that’s not a galaxy far, far away — that’s just bad internet.
Hollywood After Dark 