“Hello there!”
Here’s your crazy Star Wars rumor of the day: Ewan McGregor’s Obi-Wan Kenobi has a role to play in Episode IX, the third and final chapter in Lucasfilm’s Sequel Trilogy that’s due to commence production in the coming days.
And that’s just it; if a source close to The Sun (!) is to be believed, McGregor is expected to film scenes for the J.J. Abrams-directed threequel, where he’ll presumably play the Force Ghost version of Obi-Wan, given his character was struck down by Darth Vader all those years ago – only to become more powerful than Vader could possibly imagine.
Truth be told, there’s not much to go on here other than the fact that The Sun’s source claims Ewan McGregor will be in town very soon to capture his performance – his first live-action appearance in the Star Wars universe since Revenge of the Sith 13 years ago.
“Ewan will secretly film for the next Star Wars movie,” says the outlet. “Disney have been mulling over a stand-alone film for Obi-Wan. There have been concerns about getting the story right.”
It’s been a rollercoaster week for the Star Wars fanbase. First came the reports that Lucasfilm had halted production on all standalone projects – Obi-Wan and Boba Fett included – only for the company to come out and deny said reports with a statement which reaffirmed that there are still “multiple” Star Wars spinoffs in active development.
For the Obi-Wan Kenobi movie, it’s since been reported that director Stephen Daldry walked away from the Anthology pic earlier this year – May 11th, to be specific – despite climbing on board in August of 2017. It should be noted that Lucasfilm never actually announced Daldry’s involvement, nor did they hire a screenwriter to pen Obi-Wan’s origins movie – that we know of, mind you – so it’s difficult to know exactly when the wheels came off.
But perhaps the character will receive a second wind through Star Wars: Episode IX? We’ll find out when J.J. Abrams’ threequel takes flight in December of 2019.