Despite a seemingly huge speed bump earlier this year, the Obi-Wan Kenobi Disney+ series is still in development. This was confirmed by director Deborah Chow over the weekend, which is good news for Star Wars fans who have been looking forward to seeing Ewan McGregor make his return as the famed Jedi. Work is continuing and, with any luck, cameras will get rolling next year.
The ATX Television Festival held a virtual edition of the annual event over the weekend. Deborah Chow appeared on a panel for The Mandalorian, which is gearing up for its second season this fall. When the subject of the Obi-Wan show came up, Chow confirmed that they are still working on getting things together behind the scenes. Here’s what she had to say about it.
“We have a little more to do than that, but we’re in development.”
Originally, it was expected that production on the long-awaited project would begin this year. However, production was very suddenly halted in January with creative differences being cited. Rumors began swirling that the show was in danger of being scrapped altogether. Ewan McGregor, while promoting the release of Birds of Prey, was quick to shoot that down. Instead, Lucasfilm is taking the time to retool things behind the scenes.
Hossein Amini had originally been tapped to pen the series. In April it was revealed that Joby Harold (Army of the Dead, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword) had taken over scripting duties. Deborah Chow is expected to direct every episode of the series after previously helming multiple episodes of The Mandalorian season 1. Thus far, Ewan McGregor is the only confirmed cast member. McGregor previously played the role in George Lucas’ Star Wars prequel trilogy.
Originally, the idea was to have Ewan McGregor return in an Obi-Wan standalone movie, similar to Solo: A Star Wars Story. But when that movie failed to connect at the box office Disney and Lucasfilm began rethinking their strategy with the franchise moving forward. That ultimately meant axing other planned standalone features, such as the Boba Fett movie. It was decided that the Obi-Wan project would be retooled as a series for Disney+. It is expected that this will be a single-season event series filling in the gaps between the events of Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope.
The next Star Wars movie isn’t set to arrive until December 2022 and it remains largely mysterious. Disney opted to take a break following the release of The Rise of Skywalker. Taika Waititi was recently tapped to co-write and direct a new movie in the franchise. Thanks to the success of The Mandalorian more live-action Star Wars shows are on the way to help fill the void until then. A Rogue One prequel series centered on Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor is also in the works. We’ll be sure to keep you posted as any further details are made available. This news was previously reported by Comicbook.com.
