Hello There: The Origin Of Obi-Wan's Most Meme-Able Line According To Ewan McGregor

Throughout his "Star Wars" tenure, Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) utters several lines of dialogue that have gone down as truly legendary among fans. The undeniable favorite is "Hello there," which he says with a smile in 2005's "Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith." For someone who just leaped into a room filled with Separatist battle droids led by none other than the coughing cyborg General Grievous (Matthew Wood), he says it quite casually, which is much of the reason why fans remember the line so fondly. According to McGregor, the line came pretty naturally as a "Star Wars" callback.

"It's Alec Guiness' first line in ['Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope'] as well. That's where it comes from," he told JOE.ie of the iconic phrase. He adds that he thought the fact that it was a nod to Guiness' Kenobi portrayal was the reason why fans latched onto it, though he's since learned that it has become an online sensation away from that anecdote. The Internet is now full of "Hello there" memes, hilariously using the quote in all sorts of different contexts. Evidently, Lucasfilm took notice of the meme's popularity, hence why one of Kenobi's final lines on the Disney+ series "Obi-Wan Kenobi" is "Hello there."

Thus, if you're a "Star Wars" fan, it's impossible not to think of Kenobi when hearing the phrase "Hello there." Although, chronologically speaking, Kenobi wasn't the first to notably use it.

Before Obi-Wan Kenobi made his big entrance on Utapau to greet General Grievous and his droid army with a confident "Hello there" in "Revenge of the Sith," the two lightsaber-wielding clone wars generals clashed on several occasions. Time and time again, they found themselves on opposite ends of the same battlefront, with the Galactic Republic's Kenobi always finding ways to foil the plans of Grievous and the Separatists. These battles are chronicled on the beloved animated series "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," which presents us with an interesting bit of information about Kenobi's "Hello there" line.

In the Season 1 episode "Destroy Malevolence," Grievous and Kenobi (James Arnold Taylor) duke it out as the Jedi and his allies attempt to destroy Grievous' ship, the Malevolence, from the inside. As Kenobi wrecks the ship's hyperdrive, he's swarmed by battle droids, and eventually, Grievous himself, who drops into the room behind him and says "Hello there." Therefore, since "Destroy Malevolence" takes place well before "Revenge of the Sith," Grievous is the first between the two of them to canonically say "Hello there." Kenobi's use of it later has been recontextualized by the show as a dig at his cyborg rival.

Sure, General Grievous may have technically said it first, but Obi-Wan Kenobi said it best.