The force is strong with Ewan McGregor and he’s going to be called back into service as a Jedi Knight. All of the major trades, Variety, Deadline, and THR are reporting a scoop that made the rounds earlier today: Ewan McGregor is in talks to reprise his role as the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi in a series for Disney’s streaming channel Disney+.
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The news was reported, albeit, somewhat prematurely by Cinelinx that said McGregor had already signed his deal. Most trades say that talks and negotiations are in the works, but it looks like they were mostly on the mark and McGregor will once again be taking up his lightsaber.
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The news, beyond the early reports, does feel like one that was inevitable. Years ago, before the dark times, Stephen Daldry (“Billy Elliott”) was said to be directing an Obi-Wan solo movie. Years, past and no news came. I then heard and reported that Disney was thinking about making the Lucasfilm picture a movie for Disney+ instead of a theatrical release.
That seemed to morph organically once “Solo: A Star Wars Story” tanked at the box office in the summer of 2018. Following that movie’s dismal showing, Lucasfilm pivoted, essentially canceled most of their movie plans and instead changed most of their film ideas to be transmuted to series from on Disney+. A developing Boba Fett film quickly became a similar spin-off idea and turning into “The Mandalorian” which debuts this fall on Disney+. It took a long time, but Obi-Wan, similarly conceived as a movie has now been turned into a series.
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While there’s no confirmation out there, the site Making Star Wars, known for their “Star Wars” scoops, soon followed Cineflix story today and reported that “Obi-Wan” is being conceived as a six-part series (THR says six-to-eight part limited series). Whether it’ll be a one-off or a continuing series—“The Mandalorian” is already getting a season two— is currently unknown, but it feels like a one-off and it would not surprise me if the Disney+ series is simply an expansion of the original movie’s ideas.
READ MORE: 5 Reasons ‘Solo: A Star Wars Story’ Couldn’t Make The Jump To Hyperspace
Right now it’s unknown if Stephen Daldry is still involved and or any of the showrunners or writers. Given the length of time it’s been—and given the fact, I’d heard Daldry had left the movie long before it was even reconceived as a series—I’d be that ship has sailed. More when we get it, but for McGregor— seemingly frustrated with landing the part of a lifetime in the prequels trilogy— but never satisfied with the way those movies turned out, this could be his chance at redemption.
“Obi-Wan” would be the third series on Disney+ following “The Mandalorian” and the currently-planned “Cassian Andor,” series, a prequel spin-off from Diego Luna’s character in “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.” BTW, fun fan-made trailer below using excerpts from the 2015 film, “Last Days In The Desert.”
