Fans had been hoping for years that Ewan McGregor would one day return to Star Wars as Obi-Wan Kenobi to fill in some of the narrative gaps between Revenge of the Sith and A New Hope. It seemed increasingly unlikely once the idea of a big screen spinoff was abandoned following the end of the Anthology experiment, but now the advent of Disney Plus has firmly set the stage for an entirely new generation of stories set in a galaxy far, far away.
People lost their minds when it was confirmed that the Scottish actor would be reprising the role in a limited series, but because this is the Disney era of Star Wars we’re talking about, the almost inevitable setback soon followed. Just as Obi-Wan was gearing up to shoot, the crew were abruptly sent home and it was announced that the entire show was being reworked from the ground up following the departure of writer Hossein Amini.
Of course, this instantly led to even more vitriol being thrown in the direction of Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy, who seems to be taking the overwhelming majority of the blame for the creative issues that have consistently plagued Star Wars ever since the Mouse House assumed control, and there were rumors that Obi-Wan may even end up being canceled altogether.
However, as well as McGregor himself pouring cold water on those reports, director and executive producer Deborah Chow confirmed during a pre-recorded Mandalorian panel as part of the virtual ATX festival that the show is still very much happening after Taika Waititi had joked that he’d already finished his recently-announced Star Wars movie.
“We have a little more to do than that, but we’re in development.”
Obi-Wan is still expected to start shooting early next year in order to hit Disney Plus at some point during 2022, and with Chow firmly part of Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni’s inner circle having worked closely with the duo on The Mandalorian, if the show can stay free from studio interference, the return of the legendary Jedi looks to be in more than capable hands.